Children’s Biennale – Dreams & Stories

After its success at the National Gallery Singapore last year, with more than 200,000 enthusiastic visitors, the Children’s Biennale is now coming to Europe for the first time. At the Biennale in Dresden, members of the public are invited to enter an artistic terrain, to get in touch with their creative side and to leave behind the usually somewhat passive role of the museum visitor. This year’s topic, Dreams & Stories, explores the wondrous and dreamlike side of art.

To this end, nine regional and international artists as well as an art collective from Japan are transforming the ground floor of the Japanisches Palais into a fantastical place in which visitors are moved to see, hear, feel and get involved. Interactive and participatory artworks are arranged along a trail, prompting visitors to think at different levels about fictional and real worlds and the connection between the two. As this unfolds, the public takes an active part in co-creating the space.

At the end of the trail, there is a workshop space. Here, visitors may find creative expression for what they saw, experienced and heard. Also, a colouring book for children will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

The Children’s Biennale is all about children and families, offering them special opportunities. Exhibited works as well as central themes in the public programming were selected based on the expertise of a group of children between the ages of six and thirteen who were involved in all stages of the exhibition development, supporting the team of curators with their advice.

The SKD use the hashtags #kinderbiennale, #childrensbiennale and #skdmuseum in social media.

Participating artists: Ólafur Elíasson (starting in mid-November), Félix González-Torres, Susan Hiller, Véronique Jourmard, Mark Justiniani, Jan Kunze (artist’s book), Lynn Lu, Stephanie Lüning, Rivane Neuenschwander and teamLab.