The Mediation Program of the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art

The mediation program of the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art seeks ways to expand institutional structures and open museum spaces for public discussion. With several formats, such as the long-established Curators Workshop and the University Triangle, which took place for the first time, this edition of the Berlin Biennale brought curators and students from two universities into dialogue with the exhibition. 

Curators Workshop

Since the 4th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art took place in 2006, every iteration of the Berlin Biennale has featured a Curators Workshop. This edition of the Curators Workshop, entitled Fugitive Acts: Art and Politics, took place from September 1 to 7, and considered the place of politics within contemporary exhibition making, which the participants examined in various formats. 

The program included tours of the exhibition with the curators and artists of the 13th Berlin Biennale, workshops with Doreen Mende from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and lectures by Duygu Örs with Jas Wenzel (co-lead Education and Mediation at the 13th Berlin Biennale) and Somrak Sila (curator and author), as well as discussions with Christian Oxenius (International Biennial Association (IBA)) and Leutrim Fishekqiu with Vatra Abrashi (Autostrada Biennale, Kosovo), among others.

The Curators Workshop Fugitive Acts: Art and Politics is organized in collaboration with Goethe-Institut and the ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, and is supported by Volkswagen Group as the Educational Partner of the 13th Berlin Biennale.

University Triangle 

For the first time, the 13th Berlin Biennale hosted a second professional discourse format: a summer school developed in collaboration with the Technische Universität Berlin (Institute of Art Studies and Historical Urbanism) and the NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (with its two campuses in Milan and Rome). Through workshops, discussions and their own projects, participants explored artistic and curatorial questions, developing approaches that critically engage with political and social contexts. The results were compiled in a zine workshop led by Anja Söyünmez.

Faculty members: Andris Brinkmanis, Merten Lagatz, Marco Scotini

Open Ateliers

The Open Ateliers are family-friendly workshops held every Sunday afternoon from 3 to 6 pm during the 13th Berlin Biennale at rotating venues. Over the course of six workshops, indigo-dyed fabric remnants were used to create the installation Wunschbaum [Wishing Tree], which can be seen in the KW’s education room next to the artist Zoncy Heavenly’s work. Another workshop run by the Netzwerk gegen Feminizide Berlin [Network Against Femicide Berlin] took place in the garden of the former Courthouse on Lehrter Straße. Participants wove red nets together and became part of the participatory art action Sangre de mi Sangre [Blood of My Blood] by the feminist collective Colectiva Hilos. The last two Sundays feature collage studios by artist Ercan Arslan in the KW courtyard. The collages are based on drawings left by visitors during the Hang-Out Moments, reassembled on postcards.

Hang-Out-Moments

Scattered throughout the exhibition, the Hang-Out-Moments invite visitors to slow down time. They offer a space for self-mediation and aim to create moments of lingering, sensing, and expanding one’s own perception. The Hang-Out-Moments are places to sit or lie down, to draw, to flip through readings, or to touch materials connected to artworks. They were created in collaboration between poet Tracy Fuad, artist Sarah Steiner, and the Biennale’s mediation team, and were carefully curated by Berlin Biennale’s intern Jasmin Awale.

The educational program of the 13th Berlin Biennale is realized thanks to the support of its Education Partner, Volkswagen Group.