4th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
Of Mice and Men
25 March –5 June 2006
curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick
The exhibition Of Mice and Men unfolded like a novel: a story with various characters and personalities disclosing their private fates and universal fears. In order to capture and present these kind of tensions the curators of the 4th Berlin Biennale chose a series of unconventional venues and exhibition space—all located along the same street in the heart of Berlin: Auguststraße of Berlin-Mitte. Of Mice and Men was neither a thematic exhibition nor an exhibition that followed a certain thesis but rather posed larger questions about Birth and Loss, Death and Surrender, Sorrow and Nostalgia. The exhibition showed artworks by more than 60 artists of four generations.
Six months prior to the opening of the exhibition, an eight-part exhibition series was launched at Gagosian Gallery, a small gallery space on Auguststraße, that the curators had opened for this very purpose. In cooperation with project spaces and independent curators from Berlin, the focus of the exhibitions here was on local art production and far from large-scale exhibitions. In addition, the team of three curators toured through several German academies, artist run centers and galleries, in cities such as Düsseldorf, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Munich and Stuttgart to present a format called “The Wrong Gallery”. The curatorial research was archived in the publication Checkpoint Charley featuring images by more than 700 artists encountered in numerous studio visits and through recommendations by friends and colleagues, etc. Another activity in the run-up to the exhibition was a regular column in the Berlin city magazine Zitty featuring interviews with participating artists conducted by the curators.
A major influence to the working conditions of the curators was the decision of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) in December 2003 to support the Berlin Biennale as a “cultural beacon” and thus to secure the funding of the 4th and 5th edition of the Berlin Biennale.
The Curatorial Team of the 4th Berlin Biennale
Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick
Gagosian Gallery
Berlin Beauties
curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni, Ali Subotnick and Martin Germann
The Addiction
curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers
The Gone Wait
curated by Tobias Buche and Martin Germann
Friends and Enemies
curated by Autocenter (Joep van Liefland and Maik Schierloh), Starship (Martin Ebner, Ariane Müller and Hans-Christian Dany) and Tilman Wendland
YBA – Young Bavarian Art
curated by Olaf Metzel
Happiness
curated by Martin Germann
Homework
curated by Zdravka Bajovic, Anna Hermann, Anne Kayser, Sylvia Lysko, Katia Reich, Stephanie von Spreter, Roberta Tenconi and Renate Wagner
Graphic design
Kerstin Riedel and Philipp Arnold
Maurizio Cattelan, Ali Subotnick, Massimiliano Gioni, Curatorial Team of the 4th Berlin Biennale. Photo: Jason Nocito, 2006
Interview with Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick by Nancy Spector
Nancy Spector: I want to go back to what you just said about spaces, as this seems to be a crucial element for your biennial. You decided to set the whole exhibition on one street, using different spaces, some of them quite unusual, like [...]More >
Artists of the 4th Berlin Biennale
a
- Tomma Abts
- Victor Alimpiev
- Paweł Althamer
- Kai Althoff + Lutz Braun
- Ulf Aminde
- Micol Assael
b
- Roger Ballen
- Thomas Bayrle
- Michael Beutler
- Michaël Borremans
- Mike Bouchet
- Berlinde De Bruyckere
- Tobias Buche
- Anthony Burdin
c
- Mircea Cantor
- Bruce Conner
- Benjamin Cottam
- Martin Creed
- Oliver Croy mit Oliver Elser
- Roberto Cuoghi
d
- Tacita Dean
- Jeremy Deller
- Nathalie Djurberg
- Gino De Dominicis
- Trisha Donnelly
e
- Marcel van Eeden
f
- Saul Fletcher
g
- Felix Gmelin
- Aneta Grzeszykowska
h
- Sebastian Hammwöhner + Dani Jakob + Gabriel Vormstein
- Rachel Harrison
i
- Pravdoliub Ivanov
j
- Sergej Jensen
- Dorota Jurczak
k
- Tadeusz Kantor
- Ian Kiaer
- Christopher Knowles
- Robert Kusmirowski
l
- Klara Liden
- Erik van Lieshout
m
- Mark Manders
- Corey McCorkle
- Michaela Meise
- Matthew Monahan
- Otto Mühl
n
- Bruce Nauman
- Norbert Schwontowski
o
- Damián Ortega
p
- Diego Perrone
- Susan Philipsz
q
- Jorge Queiroz
r
- Reynold Reynolds + Patrick Jolley
- Ricarda Roggan
- Roland Flexner
- Aïda Ruilova
s
- Anri Sala
- Markus Schinwald
- Michael Schmidt
- Thomas Schütte
- Tino Sehgal
- Shirana Shahbazi
- Steven Shearer
- Florian Slotawa
- Christina Soulou
- Larry Sultan & Mike Mandel
t
- Jaan Toomik
w
- Gillian Wearing
- Clemens von Wedemeyer + Maya Schweizer
- Paloma Varga Weisz
- Andro Wekua
- Francesca Woodman
z
- Thomas Zipp