Art & Exhibitions
Berlin Biennale Looks Beyond Europe With an All-Star Curatorial Team for Its 2018 Edition
Upcoming biennale proposes a plan for tackling "collective madness"
Upcoming biennale proposes a plan for tackling "collective madness"
Eileen Kinsella ShareShare This Article
A new curatorial team is in place for the 10th edition of the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, slated to open next summer.
Curator Gabi Ngcobo has invited the following curators as collaborators: Moses Serubiri of Kampala, Uganda; Nomaduma Rosa Masilela of New York; Thiago de Paula Souza of São Paulo; and Yvette Mutumba of Berlin. Ngcobo also selected graphic designer Maziyar Pahlevan to create the visual identity for the biennale.
Ngcobo, who is from South Africa, was most recently the co-curator of the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo. She was also previously assistant curator at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, and head researcher at the Cape Africa Platform, where she curated the 2007 Cape07 Biennale.
According to a statement, each of the collaborators has “ongoing, malleable, and open-ended research interests ranging from the politics of opacity to projections on life after the end of the world.” Over the years each has worked with Ngcobo on various initiatives.
As stated on the the website, the upcoming edition of the Berlin Biennale “proposes a plan for how to face a collective madness.”
Looking at the city of Berlin as an international hub for sharing ideas, the curatorial process will be “selective, non-comprehensive, and will not provide a coherent reading of histories or the present of any kind.”
Furthermore, the “key starting points will be strategies of self-preservation as acts of dismantling dominant structures and building from a non-hierarchical position,” according to a curatorial statement.
The 10th Berlin Biennale will take place from June 9, 2018 through September 9, 2018 at various venues in Berlin.