Art tourism is a burgeoning business: the no-frills airlines have made the world’s great galleries and museums more accessible to all of us. But there is one art event currently taking place in a small, old-fashioned German town that has a rather surprising perspective. Once the seat of the region’s noblemen, it is prosperous and clean, with more than half its area made up of woodlands, parks and gardens. The 18th-century castle, Wilhelmsh? looks down upon it from beautiful grounds, and even higher up is a 30 foot-tall, copper-clad statue of Hercules, which was commissioned in 1717.One of Kassel’s main claims to fame is that the Brothers Grimm worked as librarians here between 1812 and 1815, and during that period wrote most of their fairy tales, which were later translated into more than 140 languages. Today the town is the focal point of the German Fairy Tale Road, a romantic tourist route that stretches from Hanau to Bremen. It also boasts the largest collection of Rembrandts in Germany, in the Rembrandt Gallery inside Wilhelmsh?itself.

The event was also seen then as an answer to “Degenerate Art”, the exhibition staged by the Nazis in 1937; proof indeed that Germany had changed for the better after the Second World War.Documenta, which has been held in Kassel every five years since then, has evolved into one of the art world’s most important summits, after the Venice and Whitney Biennales. In the late 1960s, it brought brash, commercialist, American Pop Art to Europe, and stamped it with the seal of approval. Documenta 5 in 1972 recognised that advertising, kitsch, science fiction, and other elements of the modern-art scene were valid artistic statements. Since that controversial exhibition, Documenta’s choice of art has been interpreted as a bell-wether of emerging trends. This year’s Documenta 11, curated by Nigerian-born Okwui Enwezor, is no exception and has generated its fair share of controversy.Documenta 11 has been dubbed the “globalisation Documenta”, with its emphasis on highly politicised art from the developing world, and a reliance on video and film.

It succeeds in placing the issues of our time – genocide, poverty, political repression, industrial pollution, civil war – within the ivory tower of modern art. With 415 works by 180 artists from five continents shown in five buildings, the scale and thematic focus stun most viewers into silence. The show excludes the likes of Damien Hirst in favour of lesser-known artists and art collectives from far-flung places including Nigeria, Benin, Moldova and Palestine. One of the most talked about exhibits is the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera’s Gestapo-like chamber with blinding lights and the sound of jackboots and hair-trigger clicks. The sounds come from a live sentry pacing on a catwalk overhead, who loads his gun repeatedly.

More lighthearted are the outdoor exhibits: Cildo Meireles’ ice-lolly vendors (welcome on a hot afternoon) and the sight of Chinese performance artists in Maoist uniforms staging a march through Kassel.Even the keenest art tourist can reach sensory overload, and luckily Kassel itself is well set up for the three million or so visitors that descend upon it every year. There are lively beer gardens, restaurants, clubs and caf? Even the laziest visitor can observe Kassel’s artistic history, simply by reclining under one of the 7,000 oaks planted by German avant-garde artist Joseph Bueys.Beautiful churches, museums and historic buildings abound in Kassel. The Orangerie, built in 1913, is a particularly fine example. Its sumptuous park was one of the landmarks badly damaged during the Second World War, but it has since been painstakingly reconstructed and is testament to the town’s classical heart It takes a lot of modern art to top that. The Facts Getting thereFlights to Frankfurt cost £117 return with Lufthansa (0845 7737747; co.uk) and £29.55 with Ryanair (0871 246 0000; ).Trains run every half hour from Frankfurt to Kassel, Monday to Saturday Fast trains take 90 minutes. Tickets cost £59 return from Deutsche Bahn (0870 243 5363).Being thereAccommodation in Kassel costs from €32 per double room per night.