It’s not possible to participate in
Big Shows
without feeling this urge
to bite
the hand that feeds you.
Give me a face instead of a place
I don’t understand Kassel (as a place)
it’s too grey, too cold and too
far away for me.
Give me
the head of
John the Baptist.
My Thoughts on big Shows. Originally published in Documenta IX (Vol.2 A-K) (cat.), Edition Cantz, Stuttgart/New York, 1992, p.140 [In the original publication the last section was in Dutch: ‘Geef mij het hoofd van Johannes de Doper’]; and included in Marlene Dumas, Sweet Nothings. Notes and Texts | Politics (of Art), first edition Galerie Paul Andriesse and De Balie Publishers Amsterdam, 1998; and second edition (revised and expanded) Koenig Books London, 2014.