Yael Bartana and Ersan Mondtag, German Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale

About

Thresholds stands for the present as a place where no one can stay and that only exists because one thing has occurred and another still awaits. For people with biographies characterized by migration, the temporal perception of the present as a threshold between the retrospective and the prospective is paired with a fundamental spatial and physical experience of living at the intersection of different belongings.

The artistic contribution to the German Pavilion approaches thresholds, steps, and boundaries through three scenarios.

In the first scenario, Yael Bartana enters the threshold of a present perceived as catastrophic—a world on the brink of total destruction. In search of a way out, she imagines possibilities of future survival through a multifaceted work poised between dystopia and utopia. In her work, Bartana constructs alternative histories that allow for imagined and shared futures.

In the second scenario, Ersan Mondtag develops a space that contrasts the monumental character of the pavilion with a fragmentary, seemingly minor narrative. In his work he explores what would happen, if it were possible to revive past eras as living environments. By creating a theatrical cosmos of representation and remembrance, Mondtag sets rigid national historiographical constructs in motion.

In addition to the works by Bartana and Mondtag in the German Pavilion, the contribution engages in a third scenario, building a bridge to another location outside the Giardini: the island of La Certosa. By moving beyond the pavilion, Thresholds focuses on the sificance of the moment of temporal and spatial transition. The artists Michael Akstaller, Nicole L'Huillier, Robert Lippok and Jan St. Werner jointly create a resonant space in a natural setting on La Certosa. Their work contrasts the monumentality of the German Pavilion, while emphasizing the idea of passage through a threshold space

The 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia takes place in Venice from April 20 to November 24, 2024. The contribution for the German Pavilion is curated by Çağla Ilk, the commissioner is the ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen