The Ballhaus—Leo von Klenze’s first authored building—stands next to the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, the neoclassical palace of Kassel, inside the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. It was built in 1808 by Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, during the time of his rule in the area, and operated at first as a theater. In 1828, William II, Elector of Hesse, ordered interior renovations that resulted in a magnificently painted royal ballroom—a lasting illustration of that era in the city.

The Ballhaus hosts a new film installation by Narimane Mari, Le fort des fous (2017), during documenta 14. Departing from material records of the early colonial “scientific expeditions” and “taming campaigns” led by the French colonizers in North Africa, the story follows a community of young nomads and wanderers as they form an imagined utopian society. Reenactments, improvisations, and interviews performed and conducted with the inhabitants of Algiers, Kythira Island, and the Prosfygika community in Athens inform this work as instances of alternative temporality and autonomous space.