6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
Do you believe in reality? What a question, you’ll reply. Reality isn’t something you believe in. It proverbially catches up with you anyway, always. But then what are we talking about here? Maybe we could talk about the fact that you so often hear people saying something was different ‘in reality’? Or about why it has become so customary to add a ‘really’ or an ‘actually’ or an ‘in fact’ to so many of the things we say? Let’s talk about the cracks in reality, about the gap between the world we talk about and the world that’s really there. But why this distinction? Because reality is always the other? Or the others? Everything that’s waiting out there?
Let’s talk about the self-deceptions where reality becomes too painful. Let’s talk about the fictional arsenal of the mass media and consumerism, about the rhetoric of distraction and appeasement.
Won’t that ultimately lead us to question contemporary art, and its relationship to reality?
Newsletter #1, February 2010
From June 11 to August 8, 2010, at several locations in Berlin, the 6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art will bring together numerous artistic positions on the present. Michael Schmidt’s photographic works are the first artistic contribution to the biennial and will accompany it in the public realm and the media throughout its duration.
The biennial will be contextualized by an exhibition with works by Adolph Menzel (1815–1905), curated – at the invitation of Kathrin Rhomberg – by the American art historian Michael Fried in cooperation with the Alte Nationalgalerie/Old National Gallery and the Kupferstichkabinett/Museum of Prints and Drawings of the National Museums in Berlin.
Kathrin Rhomberg, Curator of the 6th Berlin Biennale
The 6th Berlin Biennale’s curator Kathrin Rhomberg recently Roman Ondák’s contribution for the Czech and Slovak Pavillon at the 53rd Biennale di Venezia. From 2002 to 2007 she was the director of the Art Association of Cologne (Kölnischer Kunstverein) and between 2002 and 2006 she conceived the project Migration together with Marion von Osten, an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Between 1990 and 2001 Kathrin Rhomberg was the curator and director of Secession, Association of Visual Artists in Vienna. In 2000 she co-curated Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana – European Biennial for Contemporary Art – together with Francesco Bonami, Ole Bouman and Maria Hlavajova.
Artists Beyond, Prelude to the 6th Berlin Biennale
The prelude to the 6th Berlin Biennale is the project Artists Beyond, which is funded with support by the European Commission. Its aim is to engage artists into a dialogue with the local public of the places where they live and work. Upon invitation from Kathrin Romberg seven artists have already begun to produce their contributions:
Mark Boulos, born 1975, lives and works in Amsterdam
Phil Collins, born 1970, lives and works in Glasgow (Great Britain) and Berlin
Marcus Geiger, born 1957, lives and works in Vienna
Nilbar Güreş, born 1977, lives and works in Vienna and Istanbul (Turkey)
Petrit Halilaj, born 1986, lives and works in Berlin, Runik/Kosovo and Bozzolo/Italy
Thomas Locher, born 1956, lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin
Marie Voignier, born 1974, lives and works in Paris
The central concern of Artists Beyond is to open up the process in which the artworks are currently being created for the 6th Berlin Biennale to the respective local public in public events.
In January 2010 Kathrin Rhomberg invited the Swiss artist Marcus Geiger, who lives and works in Vienna, to participate in her class at the Academy for Fine Arts Vienna. He introduced his artistic approach to students and in particular talked about his project for the 6th Berlin Biennale. The students thus got the opportunity to directly discuss the changing conditions of artistic work and production with the artist.
In February 2010 Nilbar Güreş introduced her recent projects in an artist talk with Vasif Kortun at Platform Garanti in Istanbul. The works of Nilbar Güreş thematize female identity and gender issues, exploring the methods of visibility in public space. Against the backdrop of changing gender roles in contemporary Turkey, Güreş produces striking visual representations. As a result her works challenge the traditional patriarchal order.
Upcoming events in the framework of Artists Beyond:
11.3.2010, 7 pm
Artist talk with Marie Voignier and Pierre Bal-Blanc at the Centre d’art contemporain de Brétigny (France)
15.4.2010, 2 pm
Seminar by Thomas Locher at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen
Accreditation
Accreditation for the professional preview on 10.6.2010 is possible until 7.5.2010 atwww.berlinbiennale.de/accreditation.
The Berlin Biennale is organized by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
Auguststr. 69
D-10117 Berlin
