On Saturday 25 May KW Institute for Contemporary Art announced the dates and core collaborators for the 8th Berlin Biennale.
Photo: KW Institute for Contemporary Art
The biennale will take place between May 29 and August 3 2014 at different venues in Berlin, a newsletter informs. The newsletter also reveals that Juan A. Gaitán, curator of the 8th Berlin Biennale, has invited Tarek Atoui, Natasha Ginwala, Mariana Munguía, Olaf Nicolai and Danh Vo to collaborate with him as core members and advisors in his artistic team.
Tarek Atoui is an electro-acoustic musician who initiates and curates multidisciplinary interventions, events, concerts and workshops in Europe and the Middle East. He was born in Lebanon in 1980 and moved to Paris in 1998 where he studied contemporary and electronic music at the French National Conservatory of Reims. His productions and performances have taken place at dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012); the New Museum, New York (2010), Manarat Saadiyat, UAE (2009); Sharjah Biennial (2009); La Maison Rouge, Paris (2009) and the Today’s Art Festival, Amsterdam (2007). Much of Atoui’s work references social and political realities and presents music and new technologies as powerful tools of expression and identity.
Natasha Ginwala is an independent curator, researcher and writer based in Berlin and India. Ginwala was born in India in 1985, has pursued post-graduate studies at The School of Arts & Aesthetics (JNU), New Delhi and participated in de Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam. In 2012, she taught on the Masters of Artistic Research, University of Amsterdam and Sandberg Institute as well as the Studium Generale Programme at Gerrit Rietveld Academie. She has been guest editor of TAKE on Art Magazine, New Delhi (issue 5: Curation). Her writing has appeared in publications such as Afterall Online, Art Agenda, C Magazine, Mint (The Wallstreet Journal), Manifesta Journal, among others.
Mariana Munguía is director of Office for Art Projects (OPA) in Mexico. Munguía was born in 1979 in Mexico. She was director of Promotion and Dissemination of Cultural Center of the University of Guadalajara (2005). Mungía has been editor of the catalog Antoni Muntadas´ Projects, published by Turner and CONACULTA (2004); Coordinator I, II and III International Symposium on Contemporary Art Theory (SITAC), organized by the PAC (2002-2004). She was Director of the Laboratorio Arte Alameda (LAA) in the period 2006-2007 and Director of Plant, Contemporary Art Omnilife, Guadalajara, Mexico from 2007 to 2008.
Olaf Nicolai is a conceptual artist who lives and works in Berlin. He was born in 1962 in Germany and has exhibitied, among others, in the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2010/2011); in the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2010); in the Apollo Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2008/2009); at the 51st International Art Exhibition in Venice (2005); in the Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art) in Stockholm (2004); at the Biennale in Gwangju (2002) and Berlin (1998); in the MoMA PS1, New York (1997 and 1999); and as part of the Documenta X in Kassel (1997).
Danh Vō is an installation and performance artist living and working in Berlin. He was born in 1975 in Vietnam and grew up in Denmark where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He has also studied at the Städelschule, Frankfurt. He was the winner of the Hugo Boss Prize, New York (2012), the BlauOrange Kunstpreis der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, Berlin, Germany (2007) and was a nominee for the Nationalgalerie Prize for Young Art, Berlin, Germany (2009). He participates in the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice (2013), and has exhibited his work in such institutions as the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (2013); the Art Institute of Chicago (2012); the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2012); the National Gallery of Denmark (2010); the 6th Berlin Biennale (2010); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2009); and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008)
The Berlin Biennale is organized by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and the previous seven 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 Żmijewski together with associate curators Voina and Joanna Warsza