Initially the concept for Documenta 12 started simply as a proposal for hiding Colin Powell’s truck somewhere in Kassel and then starting a
rumor that it was there …somewhere. Also the idea had to do with transplanting the vehicle from one covert site to another. Kassel
seemed uniquely appropriate as a site for this gesture given its historical importance as a site of production of military as well as heavy
commercial vehicles, including the manufacture of trains.
For these reasons Kassel was a primary bombing target for the Allied Forces during WWII. Just as the Coalition Forces targeted Iraq for
its supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction, Kassel was targeted for its own armament production. Among the WMDs offered up as
evidence by the U.S. administration of Iraqi clandestine production, mobile biological facilities housed in trucks and trains were featured
heavily.
Kassel rose from the ashes and reconstructed itself once again as a city and industrial center and Documenta played a role in this
resurgence. The city continues to be a major industrial center for commercial transport vehicles. It also continues to fabricate military
transport and armored vehicles most of which are exported for use outside the borders of the European Union. For these reasons, its
current fabrication facilities operate under high security and are hidden from public view in the northern sector of city.
Hiding the truck in the last Kabinett of Documenta Halle seemed appropriate if not redundant given that this room when viewed from
outside is one solid, apparently windowless volume --a bunker of sorts. The only view to the exterior from the installation occurs in a small
room preceding the truck’s hideout. This room or Zwischenbau (a between space) functions as an antechamber between the larger
exhibition hall and the Kabinett that contains the truck. But it also is the space that stands between the truck and the view of the
landscape to the south. The Kabinett, the Zwischenbau and its southern exposure follow the historical layout of Kassel: industrial site in
the north; die Mitte in between; and Karlsaue, meadowland, to the south.