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6th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art: A Collaborative and Open-ended Curatorial Process



Discovering the nineteenth-century artist amongst the selection of artists comes as a welcome surprise, not least because his drawings display a quality of thought that sing with a contemporary resonance. Studies of everyday life such as a man scraping the bottom of a pot find parallels elsewhere in the Biennale amongst artists who examine the production and reception of political reality.




6th berlin biennial for contemporary art




At a moment when Trump could feasibly be president, Brexit is on the horizon, the war in Syria continues to rage and refugees drown in the Mediterranean, we also navigate a disturbingly contrary space of popular culture: Bieber is king regardless of whether he is sued for plagiarism, and every tourist site is a selfie-stick opportunity. DIS taps into this zeitgeist, where human atrocities are ignored in favor of solipsistic trivialities. Some have seen this as a celebration of this present moment of spectatorship, a reinforcement of this value system. DIS are simply giving a physical body to the problems of the present, materializing these heinous superficialities to highlight the urgency of our current situation. Arguably, this is irresponsible, given the critical overtones that could and should have accompanied this form of content. Overall, the biennial feels shallow during a deeply complex time, imitating rather than holding the system to account.


The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art has become a format providing a space for curatorial concepts beyond the mainstream production of contemporary art and culture. By choosing the artist Artur Żmijewski as the curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale, the Berlin Biennale once again demonstrated itself as a space for action and experimentation. Żmijewski and his pick of associated curators, Voina and Joanna Warsza, were particularly interested in strengthening the social impact of art and artists in order to manifest their responsibility towards the processes of social change. With more than 120,000 visitors, it was at twelve sites in Berlin and in Eisenhüttenstadt that the 7th Berlin Biennale negotiated art as a tool for social transformation by presenting a range of attempts of influencing politics directly.


The proposal offers a broad view of contemporary art practices from different Latin American creators. Thus, Under the Same Sun explores different creative responses from artists that face complex and shared realities. The exhibition focuses on works by artists born after 1968, plus some pioneers who were internationally active in the 60s and 70s many of whom have been influenced by stories and themes related to modernity and postmodernity: colonialist problems, repressive governments, economic crisis, social inequality and concurrent periods of economic wealth, development and regional progress.


After two years of residence in the Guggenheim curator Pablo León de la Barra (Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator of Latin America), organized this exhibition in collaboration with the team of South London Gallery. Under the Same Sun debuted at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in June 2014 and subsequently presented in the Jumex Museum (new museum of contemporary art in Mexico City), from November 2015 to February 2016. This will be the first time that the exhibition can be seen outside of America.


As part of a long term collaboration with UBS, the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative (MAP) will add more than 125 new works from over 85 artists to the Guggenheim's collection. All this, under the auspices of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund, signalling an unprecedented level of growth and diversity for the museum. The MAP initiative launched in 2012 is an important cornerstone between the Guggenheim initiatives as it seeks to work with artists, scholars and curators from around the world in order to promote the intersection of regional and global stories, as well as modern and contemporary practices.


Among her most important exhibitions are included: Minerva Cuevas, Museo de la Ciudad de México, Mexico City, Mexico (2012); Landings, Cornerhouse, Gallery 1, Manchester, United Kingdom (2011); S.COOP, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2010); Minerva Cuevas, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2008); Phenomena, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2007); On Society, MC Kunst, Los Ángeles, United States (2007). She has participated in different biennials as: the Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, United Kingdom (2010); the 6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2010); and the 9th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (2007).


Vasif Kortun Founding Director of Platform Garanti (2001-) a non-profit contemporary art institution in Istanbul, with an extensive library, documentation center, artist archives, exhibition space and an international residency program for artists, critics and curators. Under Kortun's direction, Platform Garanti has received international attention, and the programs have been reviewed like Flash Art, Contemporary, Frieze, Bidoun, Art Papers and many other international publications. 2ff7e9595c


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