passing on the ephemeral – this is the title of the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, which opens on 13th June 2025. The international exhibition brings together more than 60 artists and shows over 170 works that open windows into a series of geographical contexts at four exhibition venues: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Sophiensælen, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart and a former courthouse on Lehrter Straße in Berlin-Moabit.
Fig. above: courtesy of 13. Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
With the title of the exhibition, the curator of the 13th Berlin Biennale, Zasha Colah, alludes to the ability of art to define its own laws in the face of legislative violence in systems of injustice, and to set signs even under conditions of persecution and militarisation – to send messages that can be passed on. the fleeting passing on can be understood as a call or instruction piece: Visitors* are invited to now become ephemeral in their turn with these pieces of cultural evidence, to spread their content from mouth to mouth until it can materialise. The exhibition is based on the unpredictable moment in which an act of individual imagination can become a collective one.
The title of the 13th Berlin Biennale refers to the aesthetic character of the works presented, which contain fleeting forms of transmission and materialisation and make use of the body and orality. When the artwork itself speaks – in theatre productions, performances, reading groups, scientific lectures, tribunals, spoken word and communal memorial walks in the city, through to short jokes or stand-up comedy – an immediate complicity is created between the artwork and the audience.
The 13th Berlin Biennale is curated by Zasha Colah. Valentina Viviani is assistant curator.
WHEN?
Opening: Friday, 13th June 2025, 7 pm
Exhibition dates:: Friday, 13th June – Sunday, 14th September 2025
WHERE?
1.
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststraße 69
10117 Berlin
2.
Sophiensæle
Sophienstraße 18
10178 Berlin
3.
Hamburger Bahnhof – National Gallery of Contemporary Art
Invalidenstraße 50
10557 Berlin
4.
Former courthouse on Lehrter Strasse
Lehrter Straße 60
10557 Berlin
