Catherine David celebrated her 70th birthday on September 19. With her conception of documenta 10 (1997), she set new curatorial standards. The first woman to head documenta transformed the art show into a political space for thought and discourse on the globalized present. At the time, David was confronted with accusations of over-intellectualization and a lack of accessibility. Hardly any other documenta exhibition had been subjected to greater media criticism in the run-up to and during the 100 days. Today it is regarded as groundbreaking for subsequent exhibition practice.

The French curator's signature style was characterized by a decisive rejection of spectacular gestures and the eventization of the exhibition. While her predecessor Jan Hoet still relied on emotionality, overpowering and high-profile (self-)staging for documenta 9 (1992), David's “Retroperspektive” brought conceptual works and historical self-reflection to the fore. The absence of flags flapping in the wind in front of the Fridericianum was just as clear a statement as the empty Friedrichsplatz, which, unlike its predecessors, had to make do without artistic works. Instead of painting and sculpture, David focused on photography and film, on architectural concepts and urban planning, as well as, for the first time, on net art, which was still in its early days.

With the programmatic axis from the Kulturbahnhof via Treppenstraße to the banks of the Fulda, it extended the exhibition route and focused on Kassel's urban development after 1945 (including aspects of urban failure). In this way, German post-war and reconstruction history could be experienced in a strolling mode. The comprehensive catalog and the now legendary lecture program “100 Days 100 Guests” located the local tradition of the documenta in the broader political context of its founding period and at the same time opened it up to the transdisciplinary discourses of the present.

As curator of documenta 10, Catherine David changed the Kassel exhibition format forever. We warmly congratulate her on her 70th birthday and on her remarkable life's work.