This edition entitled The Crack Begins Within is a testament to the artists, their powerful collective stories and a acknowledgement of the cracks in the system, of those broken by it and their struggles. Take a look at the installation at KW Institute for Contemporary Art.
Installation view 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
Each year’s Berlin Biennale is put together by a different group of curators. Thus, this art event is influenced by their perceptions of society and the modern world. The Biennale explores artistic developments and presents the unfamiliar against the backdrop of the city, its people and their relationship to art.
The slow opening of the 11th Berlin Biennale began a year ago, and since then it has been exploring the many cracks we carry, the fissures that keep us apart and those that bring us together. Many of the invited artists and participants in the Biennale have been exploring and practicing this, each in their own artistic terms, in their own contexts and temporalities. Making space to share these experiences demanded that we slow down the unsustainable pace of biennials and forgo the expectation of a singular concept, a novel idea to once again fix things into place. The motto of this year’s Biennale is “The crack begins within”, borrowed from the Egyptian poet Iman Mersal.
Curators: María Berríos, Renata Cervetto, Lisette Lagnado, and Agustín Pérez Rubio.
Mariela Scafati, Movilización (Mobilization), 2020. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
Young-jun Tak, Chained, 2020. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
Carlos Motta, The End of Crucifixion, 2016. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
Carlos Motta, The End of Crucifixion, video, 2016. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
El Palomar, Schreber is a Woman, video, 2020. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
El Palomar, Schreber is a Woman, video, 2020. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
Florencia Rodriguez Giles, Biodelica, 2018. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
Galli, Turbasky, 1987. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
Paula Baeza Pailamilla, Kurü Mapu, video documentation, 2018. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
Virginia Borges, Gil DuOdé und Virginia de Medeiros, Ìyá Agbára [Strenght of the Mothers], 2020. 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin. Photo: Charles González
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![(clockwise) Manyaku Mashilo, Passage to Prayer (detail), 2023. Credit: Hayden Phipps & Southern Guild Archives. Courtesy of the artist; Tatenda Chidora, Self isolation II, 2021. Ilford Gold fibre Pearl 290gsm, 102cm x 132cm. Courtesy of the artist; Anaïs Cheleux, Mas Maten, Guadeloupe, shot on digital camera, 2016. Courtesy of the artist; Glicéria Tupinambá, Manto tupinambá [Tupinambá Mantle], 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Foto: Glicéria Tupinambá; Elizabeth Catlett, African American, 2009, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, © Elizabeth Catlett Family Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023, photo: Axel Schneider.](https://contemporaryand.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Bildschirmfoto-2024-12-19-um-21.08.13-320x200.png)
![(clockwise) Manyaku Mashilo, Passage to Prayer (detail), 2023. Credit: Hayden Phipps & Southern Guild Archives. Courtesy of the artist; Tatenda Chidora, Self isolation II, 2021. Ilford Gold fibre Pearl 290gsm, 102cm x 132cm. Courtesy of the artist; Anaïs Cheleux, Mas Maten, Guadeloupe, shot on digital camera, 2016. Courtesy of the artist; Glicéria Tupinambá, Manto tupinambá [Tupinambá Mantle], 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Foto: Glicéria Tupinambá; Elizabeth Catlett, African American, 2009, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, © Elizabeth Catlett Family Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023, photo: Axel Schneider.](https://contemporaryand.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Bildschirmfoto-2024-12-19-um-21.08.13-480x300.png)
