Highlights from 10. Berlin Biennale ‘We don’t need another hero’

This year’s biennale is curated by South African Gabi Ngcobo — an artist, educator and activist. Ngcobo is a founding member of Johannesburg collective platforms NGO – Nothing Gets Organised and Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR, 2010 – 2014). As an invited artist and in the framework of metioned projects, Ngcobo participated in the 5th and 8th edition of the biennale. While directing this edition she worked with a group of curators — Nomaduma Rosa Masilela (USA), Serubiri Moses (Uganda), Thiago de Paula Souza (Brazil), and Yvette Mutumba (Germany)  — presenting 46 artists in five venues around the city.

Curatorial statements, together with this led to a  visibly scaled down format can be read as a significant and deliberate response to the 2016 edition of the biennale, as well as a response to  controversies around last year’s documenta 14. This year’s exhibition exercises a possibility to invert tendencies strongly present in the global art world — to accelerate, inflate and exhaust. Refusing to produce the “heroic” narratives and frame artists in a homogeneous political message, the biennale  presents an array of works that differ from one another in form and quality. What follows, is a shortlist of works, which, while being complex and engaging by themselves, give an important insight into the whole of the exhibition.

Belkis Ayón

http://www.berlinbiennale.de/artists/b/belkis-ayon

Belkis Ayón, La consagración, 1991, © Estate de Belkis Ayón, Havana, photo: Jose A. Figueroa

Firelei Báez

http://www.berlinbiennale.de/artists/f/firelei-baez

Firelei Báez, Untitled (memory like fire is radiant and immutable), 2016, sketch for A motor with medical function 2, 2018, courtesy Firelei Báez; Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago

Tony Cokes

http://www.berlinbiennale.de/artists/T/tony-cokes

Tony Cokes, Black Celebration, 1988, courtesy Tony Cokes; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; EAI, New York

Tony Cokes, installation view, 10. Berlin Biennale, ZK/U Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik, Berlin, courtesy Tony Cokes; Greene Naftali, New York; Electronic Arts Intermix, New York, photo: Timo Ohler

Sara Haq

http://www.berlinbiennale.de/artists/s/sara-haq

Sara Haq, Things I did that nobody noticed (but that changed everything), 2018, 35 drawings on Fabriano-paper, ink and/or pastel, installation view, 10. Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, courtesy Sara Haq, photo: Timo Ohler

Sara Haq, Trans:plant, 2018, reed, installation view (detail), 10. Berlin Biennale, Akademie der Künste (Hanseatenweg), Berlin, courtesy Sara Haq, photo: Timo Ohler

Lubaina Himid

http://www.berlinbiennale.de/artists/l/lubaina-himid

Lubaina Himid, from the series On the Night of the Full Moon, 2018, There could be an endless ocean, 2018, acrylic and pencil on paper, courtesy Lubaina Himid; Hollybush Gardens, London, photo: Timo Ohler

Lubaina Himid, installation view, 10. Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, from the series On the Night of the Full Moon, 2018, from let to right: Why are you looking?, 2018, So many dreams, 2018, all works acrylic and pencil on paper, courtesy Lubaina Himid; Hollybush Gardens, London, photo: Timo Ohler

*Publication

South As A State Of Mind #10: Maintenance

http://www.berlinbiennale.de/calendar/i-m-not-who-you-think-i-m-not-6-south-as-a-state-of-mind