{"id":14008,"date":"2014-05-28T15:42:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T13:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=14008"},"modified":"2014-05-28T15:42:59","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T13:42:59","slug":"the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tacita Tacita Dean, 10 to the 21, 2014. Installation view. Courtesy Tacita Dean; Frith Street Gallery, London; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York\/Paris. Photo: Anders Sune Berg<\/p>\n

Polite, restrained and oddly pleasing, Olaf Nicolai\u2019s geometric floor-painting “Szondi\/Eden” in the entrance corridor of the ethnographic museum in Dahlem was an apt welcome to this year\u2019s 8th<\/sup> Berlin Biennale. In stark contrast to Artur Zmijewski\u2019s edition, where the art disappeared under the discourse, curator Juan A. Gait\u00e1n prefers to let the objects do the talking. Art, for him, is a resource of autonomy and individuality \u2013 for makers and viewers – in a normatised society.\u00a0 From Wolfgang Tillman\u2019s typically lush photographs, to Anri Sala\u2019s video remix of Ravel\u2019s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, to Tonel\u2019s installation dedicated to the Cuban space (“Commerce”) and Shahryar Nashat\u2019s video “Untitled”, strong individual positions dominated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The Berlin Biennale can be a poisoned chalice: while it is the second-largest temporary exhibition in Germany after Kassel\u2019s Documenta with corresponding expectations attached to it, it subsists on\u00a0much smaller budget. Unlike the Documenta, it has its roots in the punk make-do experimentalism of 90s Berlin Mitte, and as the district has outgrown its squatters\u2019 heritage, the Biennale too must find ways beyond political gesturing and the now tired trash-appropriation aesthetic. The 8th<\/sup> Biennale addresses this by using state museums and cultural institutions (the Dahlem museums and the Haus am Waldsee in addition to the KW) as staging posts, and by refraining from posting an overall concept.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s edition leaves the visitor to make their own narrative: the artworks are arranged like objects in a display cabinet, with little or no unifying theme. There are threads, here and there: alternative readings of (post-colonial) history (apt, given that one of the sites is Dahlem\u2019s ethnographic museum), environmental concerns, and exploration of alien spaces, but none suffices to build a unifying position or theme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" Olaf Nicolai, Szondi\/Eden, 2014. Chalk on granite, four lamps. Dimensions variable. Each lamp ca. 290 x 100 x 100 cm Installation view Courtesy Olaf Nicolai; Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig\/Berlin. Copyright Olaf Nicolai \/ VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014 Photo: Anders Sune Berg<\/p>\n

Of course, this is part of Gait\u00e1n\u2019s strategy: rather than dictating a theme for artists to illustrate, in the style of the star curator, he assembled a group of artists with established positions and let these dictate the tone. At times, this means that it feels like we are ticking off greatest hits: there is Tillmann\u2019s 21st<\/sup> Century Memento Mori, a Carsten H\u00f6ller immersive environment (“7,8 Hz”), a Tacita Dean homage to celluloid (“10 to the 21”), Julieta Aranda taking her biopolitical commentary into space via an installation which owes a great deal of debt to post-internet practices (“Stealing one\u2019s own corpse”), an outdoor version of a Slavs and Tartars carpet. Of course, there are also some outstanding, lesser-known artists, and a strong framing programme of theatre (Goshka Macuga\u2019s art world satire “Preparatory Notes for a Chicago Comedy” with Dieter Roelstraete), Ballet (Carla Zaccagnini, “Le Quintuor des Negres, encore”) concerts (Tarek Atoui\u2019s “Dahlem Sessions”), talks and a daily web journal<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Anri Sala\u2019s video piece and Santu Mofokeng\u2019s photographs of South African burial grounds had a previous outing at the 55th<\/sup> Venice Biennale last year: Mofokeng represented Germany and Sala France (Germany and France had swapped pavilions that year). Similarly, with Goshka Macuga, Tarek Atoui, Gordon Bennett, Tacita Dean, Mario Garc\u00eda Torres, Christodoulos Panayiotou and Julieta Aranda (among others), there are numerous parallels with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev\u2019s dOCUMENTA (13).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gait\u00e1n not only shows similar artists: the overall (non)theme also owes a debt to Christov-Bakargiev\u2019s exploration of an artwork\u2019s agency, with Gait\u00e1n\u2019s insistence on the autonomy of the art object, and his focus on how we encounter (as subjects) these objects in space and the museum. Each object stands for itself and not a generic concept or position, but in the end this means that the Biennale\u2019s connections to Berlin are at best, tenuous. The ultimate impression the visitor is left with is that of an oddly institutionalised (given the use of the Dahlem museum space), well-behaved Berlin Biennale. BB8 feels like a pocket version of its larger cousins in Venice and Kassel: a rehearsal for an exhibition that is yet to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text by Jeni Fulton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Die 8th Berlin Biennale<\/a> is on show from 28 May – 3 August 2014 at Haus am Waldsee, Museen Dahlem, KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Crash Pad c\/o KW Institute.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tacita Dean, 10 to the 21, 2014. Installation view. Courtesy Tacita Dean; Frith Street Gallery, London; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York\/Paris. Photo: Anders Sune Berg Polite, restrained and oddly pleasing, Olaf Nicolai\u2019s geometric floor-painting “Szondi\/Eden” in the entrance corridor of the ethnographic museum in Dahlem was an apt welcome to this year\u2019s 8th Berlin Biennale….<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[1483,514,1484,92],"class_list":["post-14008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-8th-berlin-biennale","tag-jeni-fulton","tag-kw-institute","tag-review"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nThe 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tacita Dean, 10 to the 21, 2014. Installation view. Courtesy Tacita Dean; Frith Street Gallery, London; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York\/Paris. Photo: Anders Sune Berg Polite, restrained and oddly pleasing, Olaf Nicolai\u2019s geometric floor-painting “Szondi\/Eden” in the entrance corridor of the ethnographic museum in Dahlem was an apt welcome to this year\u2019s 8th Berlin Biennale....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-28T13:42:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. This creativity manifests itself in SLEEK\u2019s quarterly print publication, digital and social media channels.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/\",\"name\":\"The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-28T13:42:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-28T13:42:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c5f3e8e696c044fb822d2530a768f11c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c5f3e8e696c044fb822d2530a768f11c\",\"name\":\"sleek team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/404b6a6d9dfd8710d349055eb5f6e3eb12a480b0445e12debd7785cc1963dfb1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/404b6a6d9dfd8710d349055eb5f6e3eb12a480b0445e12debd7785cc1963dfb1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"sleek team\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/sleek-team\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows","og_description":"Tacita Dean, 10 to the 21, 2014. Installation view. Courtesy Tacita Dean; Frith Street Gallery, London; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York\/Paris. Photo: Anders Sune Berg Polite, restrained and oddly pleasing, Olaf Nicolai\u2019s geometric floor-painting “Szondi\/Eden” in the entrance corridor of the ethnographic museum in Dahlem was an apt welcome to this year\u2019s 8th Berlin Biennale....","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/","og_site_name":"Sleek Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/","article_published_time":"2014-05-28T13:42:59+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sleekmag","twitter_site":"@sleekmag","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"sleek team","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"4\u00a0Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/","name":"Schlankes Magazin","description":"Sleek ist Deutschlands f\u00fchrendes unabh\u00e4ngiges Medienhaus\/Marke f\u00fcr Kreativit\u00e4t und Innovation mit Sitz in Berlin, der kreativen Hauptstadt der Welt. Diese Kreativit\u00e4t manifestiert sich in der viertelj\u00e4hrlich erscheinenden Print-Publikation, den digitalen und Social-Media-Kan\u00e4len von SLEEK.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/","name":"The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2014-05-28T13:42:59+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-28T13:42:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c5f3e8e696c044fb822d2530a768f11c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/the-8th-berlin-biennale-dancing-in-the-shadows\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The 8th Berlin Biennale: Dancing in the shadows"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c5f3e8e696c044fb822d2530a768f11c","name":"schlankes Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/404b6a6d9dfd8710d349055eb5f6e3eb12a480b0445e12debd7785cc1963dfb1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/404b6a6d9dfd8710d349055eb5f6e3eb12a480b0445e12debd7785cc1963dfb1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"sleek team"},"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/sleek-team\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}