6TH BERLIN BIENNALE
Curator Kathrin Rhomberg commissions work which will be seen in the artists’ countries of production “As a prelude to the 6th Berlin Biennale, the project Artists Beyond consists of international events staged by the Berlin Biennale in cooperation with different institutions in seven European countries.
Artists Beyond focuses on the creative processes and the actual artistic production of seven artists – Mark Boulos, Phil Collins, Marcus Geiger, Nilbar Güres, Petrit Halilaj, Thomas Locher, and Marie Voignier. The central concern of the project is to open up production processes to local audiences in each of the seven countries, offering insights into artistic research and work at the sites of production. So, for example, Nilbar Güres will introduce her work to the Istanbul public in the space Platform Garanti. There will also be a seminar by Thomas Locher at the Art Academy of Copenhagen and Marie Voignier will give a talk at the Centre d’art contemporain de Brétigny.This year’s biennial also brings together many artistic positions on the contemporary present in multiple locations in Berlin, among them KW Institute for Contemporary Art and a venue in the Berlin quarter of Kreuzberg. Michael Schmidt’s photographic works will be shown throughout the whole biennale, while the event iself is contextualised by an exhibition with works by Adolph Menzel (1815–1905), curated by American art historian Michael Fried at our invitation and in cooperation with the Alte Nationalgalerie and the Kupferstichkabinett of the the National Museums in Berlin.
The biennale will raise urgent questions about our present time. I want it to speak of the cracks in reality, about the gap between the world that is talked about and the world that is actually there. And also to ask why we have these distinctions and self-deceptions, why we have a fictional arsenal of mass media and consumption, and about the rhetorics of distraction and pacification.
My approach is actually to look less at highlights and nourish anticipation. Following the question of urgencies, there will be very subtle but also disturbing interventions leading to another way of imagining our future.”
6th Berlin Biennale, 11 June-8 August