The 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art will take place from 14 June to 14 September 2025 and is curated by Zasha Colah, together with Valentina Viviani as assistant curator. The exhibitions and programme of the Berlin Biennale can be experienced at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, its founding organisation, as well as at other venues in the city.
Image above: courtesy of 13. Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
In her work as a curator and writer, Zasha Colah explores artistic imagination and acts of civil disobedience under conditions of ongoing repression. Colah on the premises of the next Berlin Biennale: ‘The strong presence of foxes in the Berlin cityscape is one of the starting points for thinking of the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art as an exploration of transience. Encounters with urban foxes have been described by poets as an experience of presence, a turning on the spot, a brief pause in the presence of the fox. The senses encounter something different without reacting with associative chains of thought or prejudice. This encounter has less to do with a human identification with the fox than with a feeling of sameness with the fox.’
Zasha Colah (Mumbai, India, 1982) is the curator of the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Her exhibitions explore artistic imagination, humour and oral traditions, often under conditions of ongoing repression. Colah is artistic director of Ar/Ge Kunst (together with Francesca Verga, Bolzano, since 2023), lecturer in Curatorial Studies at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Milan, since 2018) and a member of the editorial board of GeoArchivi (directed by Marco Scotini/Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, published by Meltemi, Milan, since 2021). Colah was a member of Archive (Berlin/Dakar/Milan, 2020-23), a decentralised platform for collaborative practice, and a founding member of the Clark House Initiative (Mumbai, 2010-22), a coalition of artists and curators dedicated to issues of freedom. Her PhD thesis looks at illegality and meta-exhibition practices in Indo-Myanmar since the 1980s (Sapienza – Università di Roma, 2020). She co-curated the 3rd Pune Biennale together with Luca Cerizza (2017) and was part of the curatorial team of the 2nd Yinchuan Biennale under the direction of Marco Scotini (2018). Zasha Colah lives in Turin and is currently in Berlin to prepare the 13th Berlin Biennale.
Valentina Viviani (Córdoba, Argentina, 1991) is assistant curator of the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Viviani is an artist and curator and part of Poly Marchantia, a feminist artist collective that explores the possibilities of embodying plant thinking and radical coexistence with different environments understood as ecosystems. As an artist, she has created The Missing Forest, a performative walk (Ar/Ge Kunst, Bolzano, 2023), as well as, together with Poly Marchantia, Quali voci, quali corpi, quali storie? (as part of the SITU residency programme, Militello in Val di Catania, 2021) and Atlas, fragmentos para la producción del Paisaje (Córdoba, 2017). She co-curated The Scorched Earthly (221A Vancouver, 2021-22) and Extraneous (EXILE Gallery, for the Curated by Festival, Vienna, 2022) with Zasha Colah. Viviani taught and coordinated the Mater Matuta Master’s programme in Curatorial Practice and Contemporary Mediterranean Philosophy (ABADIR Academy, Sicily, 2023-24). She lives in Turin (since 2020).
The visual identity of the upcoming Berlin Biennale was developed by Enver Hadzijaj. Hadzijaj’s design practice is orientated towards high-concept approaches and artistic expression. For the 13th Berlin Biennale, Hadzijaj has designed a visual identity that is characterised by the encounter between strict typography, reminiscent of bureaucratic correspondence, and fleeting, graphic abbreviations.
WHEN?
Saturday, 14 June – Sunday, 14 September 2025
WHERE?
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststraße 69
10117 Berlin
and further locations in Berlin
