The team of documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH mourns the passing of Pier Luigi Tazzi. The curator and art critic passed away on November 11, 2021 in Montelupo Fiorentino, Italy, at the age of 80. As co-curator of documenta 9 (1992) under the artistic direction of Jan Hoet, he played a key role in shaping the "documenta of places" – as Hoet describes it in the introduction to the exhibition catalog. Born in Colonnata, Italy, in 1941, Tazzi was responsible for exhibitions and projects in museums and institutions throughout the world over the course of his career and is internationally regarded as a highly esteemed critic.

Our sincere condolences go to all his friends and companions.

Pier Luigi Tazzi was born in 1941 in Colonnata, Florence, Italy, and lived in Capalle, Florence, and in NongPrue, ChonBuri, Thailand, where he fostered relationships with the Thai art scene. Since 1998, he was chairman of the non-profit organization Fondazione Lanfranco Baldi in Pelago and since 2016 a valued founding member of Cantiere Toscana, a network promoting contemporary art in Tuscany. All the same, Tazzi became increasingly interested and involved in contemporary art from the Asian region. He was, for instance, guest curator of the 2010 Aichi Triennale in Nagoya and organized exhibitions of Thai artists in Italy until 2013. During documenta 14 (2017) Tazzi participated in a guest discussion with Monika Szewczyk and Denys Zacharopoulos sharing his experience of curating in the aftermath of the fall of communism.

In deep sympathy

The documenta team