4th berlin biennial for contemporary art
Of Mice and Men
25.03.-28.05.2006
Opening Hours
Tuesday Sunday 12 7 pm
Thursday 12 9 pm
Closed on Mondays
The 4th berlin biennial for contemporary art, curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick, opens today following eighteen months of activities and preparations including a regular column in Zitty magazine, monthly shows at Gagosian Gallery, Berlin, and the publication Checkpoint Charley. Entitled Of Mice and Men, the exhibition looks at life as a series of traumas and at art as an enigma that captures moments of disorientation and states of uncertainty and fragility. Anxiety and paranoia, an impenetrable obscurity and a looming sense of suspension are some of the recurring atmospheres in the show. Borrowing its title from John Steinbeck who in turn had appropriated it from 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns Of Mice and Men offers a series of reflections on the human condition as a terrain of fear and subjugation, of malaise and revelation, illuminated by spontaneous interludes of beauty. Stemming from questions of birth and loss, death and surrender, grief and nostalgia, Of Mice and Men includes more than 70 artists, spanning four generations and working in a variety of media and disciplines, that together produce a theater of the absurd in which animals, humans and ghosts all play their tragic part. The show literally stretches along one street, Auguststraße, in Berlins Mitte district, guiding viewers through twelve very different spaces, from a church to a cemetery, to a former Jewish girls school. Most of the venues have never been used as exhibition spaces: all of them have been carefully selected for their historic and symbolic value: these are the places where we carry out our everyday activitieseating, praying, dancing, learning and dying.
Artists
Tomma Abts, Viktor Alimpiev, Pawel Althamer, Kai Althoff and Lutz Braun, Ulf Aminde, Micol Assaël, Roger Ballen, Thomas Bayrle, Michael Beutler, Michaël Borremans, Bouchet, Tobias Buche, Anthony Burdin, Mircea Cantor, Bruce Conner, Benjamin Cottam, Martin Creed, Oliver Croy with Oliver Elser, Roberto Cuoghi, Tacita Dean, Jeremy Deller, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Gino De Dominicis, Nathalie Djurberg, Trisha Donnelly, Marcel van Eeden, Saul Fletcher, Roland Flexner, Felix Gmelin, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Sebastian Hammwöhner / Dani Jakob / Gabriel Vormstein, Rachel Harrison, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Sergej Jensen, Dorota Jurczak, Tadeusz Kantor, Ian Kiaer, Christopher Knowles, Robert Kusmirowski, Erik van Lieshout, Klara Liden, Ján Mancuska, Mike Mandel & Larry Sultan, Mark Manders, Kris Martin, Paul McCarthy, Corey McCorkle, Michaela Meise, Matthew Monahan, Otto Mühl, Bruce Nauman, Damián Ortega, Diego Perrone, Susan Philipsz, Jorge Queiroz, Reynold Reynolds with Patrick Jolley, Ricarda Roggan, Aïda Ruilova, Anri Sala, Markus Schinwald, Michael Schmidt, Thomas Schütte, Norbert Schwontkowski, Tino Sehgal, Shirana Shahbazi, Steven Shearer, Florian Slotawa, Christiana Soulou, Jaan Toomik, Paloma Varga Weisz, Gillian Wearing, Clemens von Wedemeyer with Maya Schweizer, Andro Wekua, Cathy Wilkes, Francesca Woodman, Thomas Zipp.
Dates
25.03. 28.05.2006
Opening Hours
Tuesday Sunday 12 7 pm
Thursday 12 9 pm
Closed on Mondays
Admission
Groups with more than 20 people should contact us in advance. Discounts are available to pupils, students, pensioners, unemployed individuals and military conscripts. Admission is free for children under six and welfare recipients.
Publications
Exhibition Guide
232 pp., ca. 100 black and white illustrations
Published by Hatje Cantz Verlag
ISBN 3-7757-1764-1
Exhibition Catalogue
344 pp., ca. 250 color illustrations
Published by Hatje Cantz Verlag
ISBN 3-7757-1765-X
Visitor Services
KW Institute for Contemporary Art in cooperation with Arthur Berlin
Anne Krause and Tanja Schomaker
Tel. 0049 (0)30-24 34 59-61
Fax 0049 (0)30-24 34 59-99
visit@berlinbiennale.de
The 4th berlin biennial for contemporary art is organized by the KW Institute for Contemporary Art.
The 4th berlin biennial for contemporary art is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Gagosian Gallery, Berlin, is realized with the support of the Culture 2000 program of the European Union.
In friendly cooperation with BMW Group.
Contact
4th berlin biennial for contemporary art
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststraße 69
D-10117 Berlin
Tel. 0049 (0)30-24 34 59-0
Fax 0049 (0)30-24 34 59-99
office@berlinbiennale.de
