Harald Szeemann

A generation of curators and viewers has been inspired by Harald Szeemann's independently organized exhibitions and his emphatic methods of presenting contemporary art. This volume describes the "Szeemann principle," the visions of an enlightened curator, and provides an overview of the most important stations of his singular curatorial career: the legendary exhibitions "When Attitudes Become Form" and Documenta 5; the great thematic explorations such as "Bachelor Machines"; and his discoveries of young Eastern European scenes. In retrospect, Szeemann's infallible interest in artistic loners with strong attitudes and powerful personalities seems like a vehement contradiction of an art market that focuses on trends and movements. In the last 10 years of Szeemann's life, he sought the new as avidly as ever, as viewers will note in documentation of his fourth Lyon Biennale, second Kwangju Biennial, both the 1999 and 2001 Venice Biennales, and the first Seville Biennial, which closed two months before his death: it was themed "The Joy of My Dreams."