Events
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12.9.2016 | Akademie der Künste (Pariser Platz), Berlin

Future Institutions

Panel discussion with Chris Dercon and Krist Gruijthuijsen, moderated by Armen Avanessian

In conjunction with the Young Curators Workshop Post-contemporary Art

In conjunction with the 6th Young Curators Workshop Post-contemporary Art, conceived by Armen Avanessian, the Berlin Biennale is pleased to present a series of discussions surrounding a new time complex that marks the end of the enduring linearity between past, present, and future. In today’s post-contemporary conditions—being constructed by financial capitalism as well as social media, the military, artificial intelligence, and big data—the present is operationalized as risk or contingency; that is by a relation to the future.

Contemporary art has been the art of its time, bound to the capitalist present in which it took place. Under the paradigm of the post-contemporary, what are the characteristics of art and its production conditions? Three events within the framework of the Young Curators Workshop will be dedicated to each temporality. Past, present, and future will be analyzed in regard to their changed conditions, questioning the possible social role and function of (post-)contemporary art.

The event Future Institutions is aimed at the new direction of our speculative period. The future happens before the present, time arrives from the future. Together with Chris Dercon and Krist Gruijthuijsen, whose work as directors of the Volksbühne and KW Institute for Contemporary Art will decisively shape Berlin’s cultural life in the years ahead, Armen Avanessian will investigate possible strategies for long-term, sustainable institutional models. How can an institution represent the contemporary when planning procedures demand several months or even years? What is to be prioritized when designing and implementing a vision? How can we draft urgent discourses for the future?

This year’s Young Curators Workshop is conceived by Armen Avanessian and organized by Maurin Dietrich, Krisztina Hunya, and Valerie Amend.

The Young Curators Workshop Post-contemporary Art is a cooperation between Allianz Cultural Foundation, BMW Group, ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), and the 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. The participation of one French curator is made possible in conjunction with the program Jeunes Commissaires of the Bureau des arts plastiques of the Institut français Germany.

The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art is organized by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation).