KW Institute for Contemporary Art as organizer of the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art is delighted to announce the appointment of the New York based collective DIS, composed of Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, and David Toro, as curatorial team of the 9th Berlin Biennale. The 9th Berlin Biennale will take place from June 4 until September 18, 2016.
The cultural interventions of DIS are manifest across a range of media and platforms, from site-specific museum and gallery exhibitions such as CO-WORKERS – Network as Artist (2015, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015 (The Museum of Modern Art, New York, US), DIS Image Studio (2013, The Suzanne Geiss Company, New York, US), ProBio at EXPO 1: New York (2013, MoMA PS1, New York, US) or Dressing the Screen for the British Council (2012, UCCA, Beijing) to ongoing online projects which most notably include DIS Magazine, a virtual platform that examines art, fashion, music, and culture, constructing and supporting new creative practices. Recent ventures include DISimages, 2013, a fully operational stock photography agency that enlists artists to produce images available for private and commercial use, and DISown, a retail venture aimed at expanding creative economies. Across its various endeavors, DIS explores the tension between popular culture and institutional critique, while facilitating projects for the most public and democratic of all forums—the Internet.
It is easy to imagine why DIS Magazine has been asked to curate the Berlin Biennial. After the initial shock subsides—it seems practically inevitable. One can close their eyes and almonst read the catalog.
RICK HAMMER, Huffington Post
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.
Curators have been:
1st Berlin Biennale (1998)
Klaus Biesenbach with Nancy Spector and Hans Ulrich Obrist
2nd Berlin Biennale (2001)
Saskia Bos
3rd Berlin Biennale (2004)
Ute Meta Bauer
4th Berlin Biennale (2006)
Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni, and Ali Subotnick
5th Berlin Biennale (2008)
Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic
6th Berlin Biennale (2010)
Kathrin Rhomberg
7th Berlin Biennale (2012)
Artur Zmijewski together with associate curators Voina and Joanna Warsza
8th Berlin Biennale (2014)
Juan A. Gaitán
The selection committee for the curatorship of the 9th Berlin Biennale consisted of Elvira Dyangani Ose (Lecturer, Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London), Fulya Erdemci (Curator, Istanbul, TR), Susanne Gaensheimer (Director, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, DE), Edi Muka (Curator, Public Art Agency, Stockholm), María Inés Rodríguez (Director, CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, FR), Ali Subotnick (Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US), and Philip Tinari (Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing).
The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art is since its fourth edition one of the projects supported by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) as “outstanding cultural event”. In December 2013, the Board of Trustees of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes decided to fund the 9th and 10th edition of the Berlin Biennale again with 2.5 Million Euro each and thus ensures planning stability, enabling the organizers to address issues of content in an experimental way.
The Berlin Biennale is organized by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation).
BMW Group is Corporate Partner of the 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art.