The upcoming Berlin Biennale has been postponed from 2024 to 2025, citing the pandemic and the ‘biennale super year’ as reasons.
The German Federal Cultural Foundation announced the decision via a statement last week. The primary concern was that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of periodic exhibitions were canceled or postponed. Many of these are scheduled to open in 2024. In addition, many other major exhibitions are scheduled to open in 2024, prompting art experts to call 2024 as ‘Biennale super art year’. The statement read: “Because other international biennials were also postponed to 2024 due to the pandemic, a competition for resources can be expected, which will ultimately result in the capacities of artists and their availability.”
The most important of these is the Venice Biennale – the oldest and grandest of all art festivals. The Venice Biennale will open on April 20, 2024, and close on November 24. The event is already gathering news for being curated by Adriano Pedrosa, the first Latin American to do so. Furthermore, the close proximity of the biennale to Berlin means that there would not only be conflicts for artists and audiences alike but also a possible shortage of curators.
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Other major exhibitions happening next year include Glasgow International, the 17th Biennale de Lyon, and the 15th Gwangju Biennale. The previous edition of the Berlin Biennale opened in June 2022 and closed in September, seeing over 14,000 footfalls. Titled ‘Still Present!’, Kader Attia curated the event.
