In September 1976, Arnold Bode sends “warm greetings from Lucca, Florence, Siena, Elba and Venice” to “dear comrade City Councillor Wurbs”, the head of the Kassel Cultural Office. The dynamic calligraphy and the playful linking of the writing and the pasted-on postcard (Rialto Bridge with gondolier) by a boldly executed arrow can be interpreted as an indication of the traveler's vacation cheerfulness. But as usual, Bode keeps his protocol brief and immediately turns his attention to the upcoming projects of Kassel's day-to-day business:

"The Biennale / has ‘not’ succeeded! / A long talk about it! Yes - when / and on Monday there will be a big paper / about our joint work - Oktogon etc.”

The letter quoted here is part of a private donation that recently arrived at the documenta archiv. The bundle provides insight into Bode's Kassel network and expands the holdings on the documenta founder with autographs and previously unknown material.

In addition to a collection of publications and pamphlets, the inventory contains Bode's correspondence with key players in the city's cultural policy as well as several multi-page dossiers on various projects from the mid-1970s. Of particular note are documents on the never realized “Octagon Museum of 100 Days” for documenta 6 (1977) - the long-pursued vision of a sculpture exhibition in the octagonal building at the foot of Kassel's Hercules - as well as concept papers and plans for the establishment and multi-storey construction of an Arnold Bode Foundation in Kassel Wilhelmshöhe, which Bode outlined in the last years of his life in his own memory (in memory of “A B”).

The new part of the collection will be catalogued and made accessible together with the Bode estate in the documenta archiv.