From June 4 to September 18, 2016, Berlin Biennale will again present Germany’s capital with international works of contemporary art – and BMW will once more support the exhibition as partner. Curated by the New York-based artist collective DIS, this year’s artistic programme will seek to materialize the paradoxes that increasingly make up the world in 2016: amongst others the virtual as the real, nations as brands, people as data, culture as capital, and wellness as politics. In the upcoming months, more than 150 international artists and members of other disciplines will be participating in the discourse within various formats forming the 9th Berlin Biennale. Besides KW Institute for Contemporary Art this year’s art works will be also displayed at the Akademie der Künste, the ESMT European School of Management and Technology located in the former headquarters of the GDR state council, the reopened Feuerle Collection as well as the passenger ship Blue-Star of Riedel shipping company.
Together with Allianz Cultural Foundation and ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), BMW will enable the Young Curators Workshop as part of the Berlin Biennale already for the sixth time. Developed by philosopher Armen Avanessian, this year’s concept is dedicated to the topic and challenges of “Post-contemporary Art”. The 10-day workshop from September 8-17 aims to exchange ideas, discuss curatorial issues and practices and strengthen the initiative of young curators worldwide.
As in previous years, the participants of the 9th Berlin Biennale include artists closely connected to BMW Group’s international cultural engagement. As such, the next BMW Art Car artist Cao Fei will present two stills of her video work “Haze and Fog” (2013) in a light box installation as part of the LIT project exhibited in the foyer of the Akademie der Künste. In addition, Romanian artist Alexandra Pirici, who will present her work “Public Collection” together with Manuel Pelmus as part of BMW Tate Live during the opening weeks of the new Tate Modern, will be part of the main programme of the Berlin Biennale. On Saturday, June 4, BMW hosts an exclusive media brunch with the curatorial team DIS and artists of the Biennial such as Alexandra Pirici.
Since its inception in 1998, the Berlin Biennale has become one of Germany’s most important events of contemporary art. It is shaped by the different concepts of curators appointed to enter into a dialogue with the city of Berlin, its general public, the people interested in art as well as the artists of this world. The previous eight editions of the Berlin Biennale explored a variety of exhibition formats and involved diverse curatorial agendas.
The city of Berlin and the BMW Group are connected through a lasting and wide-ranging cultural partnership. Besides the Berlin Biennale, the list of long-term commitments to the arts in Germany’s capital city includes the Preis der Nationalgalerie, the Gallery Weekend Berlin and the abc art berlin contemporary. In addition, an international artist-in-residence exchange program for young Chinese and German artists was launched in 2014. Beyond the extensive commitment to the arts, the long-standing open-air format “State Opera for All” – a music initiative of BMW and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden – celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
For further information about the programme accompanying the exhibition of the 9thBerlin Biennale, please refer to: http://bb9.berlinbiennale.de/de/
