We are all fans of something. Fan of a football club, a famous singer or just fan of spaghetti bolognese. We always have different ways to show our passion towards others, but what happens when we appropriate this expression of passion and use it for something else? This is what happened in the project „Kassel Documenta-Stadt, die schönste Stadt die Deutschland hat": showing others that you are fan of an art institute or even an entire city, through wearing a scarf.
It confuses traditional fans, for they are used to differentiate themselves from others through this style and color tool. The appropriation of this style for the sake of an artwork tries to show the complex culture of being fan appropriating a style of expression of others. But in the end, even if my scarf uses the same coloring and the same style mechanisms, that doesn't mean that I am expressing a similar message as my neighbor wearing a similar scarf.
Jero van Nieuwkoop
