The Documenta opens in Kassel this weekend.

This is an exhibition where artists from all over the world show their work.

The Documenta is considered the most important art exhibition in the world.

At least it does in Germany, in Europe and also in North America.

Perhaps in many African countries the Dakar Biennial is considered even more important, and in Korea and China the Gwangju Biennial.

But it's amazing that an art exhibition in a rather small town in northern Hesse can become so famous that people come from New York or Tokyo to see art in Kassel.

Nicholas Mak

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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It all began in 1955. At that time, the Second World War had only just ended ten years ago and many houses in Kassel were still destroyed.

At that time, an art historian named Arnold Bode decided to put on a major art exhibition in the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel, which was still in ruins.

Above all, he wanted to show the art that wasn't allowed to be shown when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were in power - the so-called modern art - all the wild pictures that Hitler didn't like.

Thousands of people came to see the art they hadn't been allowed to see for a long time - for example the works of Picasso.

For many people, the Documenta was a good place to get to know art from all over the world.

In 1968, colorful pop art from America could be seen there.

But there were often arguments.

The artist Joseph Beuys, for example, planted 7000 oak trees and said that for him it was a work of art.

For others it was just a forest.

In 2002, the head of Documenta was Okwui Enwezor;

he showed what art was being made in Africa and Latin America.

Far too little of these continents was on display in the major European museums.

Strange things sometimes happen at the Documenta.

Once, in 2012, the French artist Pierre Huyghe let a white dog run around in the large park of the documenta, the Karlsauen, whose leg he had dyed pink.

The dog looked like a mythical creature from another planet - and showed that even a living animal can become a work of art.

Artists ask important questions at the Documenta.

Questions like: What is nature?

What is beautiful?

How can people live together?

This year the documenta is being organized by a group from Indonesia.

They call themselves Ruangrupa.

They want to make Lumbungs out of the museums in Kassel, where one picture is usually hung next to the other.

In Indonesia, where Ruangrupa comes from, that's what barns are called in which the farmers store everything they don't need from their harvest for themselves.

In this barn you meet friends, you party, you cook together and have fun.

You should also have the Lumbung fun in Kassel.

Normally you have to be quiet in museums, you're not allowed to run around or lie down in a corner and sleep.

This is different now.

38 artists sleep in the Fridericianum and use the museum as a house, they build furniture and make art there, you can watch them and sometimes even join in.

And in the Documenta hall you can even bring your skateboard and ride it around in a halfpipe between the works of art.

There was also no such thing as being allowed to skateboard in the middle of the museum.

It's also an art if you can skateboard well - and Ruangrupa thinks that all art belongs in a museum.

That way it doesn't get boring in the museum.

That's another reason why so many people still want to go to Kassel and see the Documenta - and why it's still considered important.