Stuttgart/Berlin/Venice, 18 April 2024. – Katja Keul, Minister of State at the German Foreign Office, Ulrich Raulff, President of ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, and Çağla Ilk, curator of the German Pavilion 2024, today opened the German contribution to the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
At the opening of the German Pavilion in Venice, Foreign Office Minister Katja Keul said: "In a world that is increasingly marked by political tension and global conflict, the Venice Art Biennale reminds us of the irreplaceable role of art in dialogue and understanding. Under the title Thresholds, the German contribution invites us to reflect on current thresholds, including in foreign cultural policy, and common paths for the future with our partners worldwide. We want to use this space to strengthen mutual understanding and appeal to common ground."
Ulrich Raulff, President of ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen said: "I'm interested in the title that curator Çağla Ilk has chosen to give to the German Pavilion's major project this year. Thresholds perfectly sums up today’s global situation in a single word: the political and existential situation in which we find ourselves, the decisions it demands of us, the cracks that run through our societies. And our expectations that art will address this situation and point the way to a more open future. These are very difficult challenges. The German Pavilion faces them with impressive courage."
Six artistic positions question territorial and temporal boundaries, thresholds and transitions under the exhibition title Thresholds. For the first time, the exhibition at the German Pavilion will move beyond the boundaries of the pavilion building in the Giardini della Biennale to another location for the entire duration of the exhibition: to the neighbouring island of La Certosa. Yael Bartana and Ersan Mondtag will present their works in the pavilion building, while Michael Akstaller, Nicole L'Huillier, Robert Lippok and Jan St. Werner will be showing at La Certosa.
Çağla Ilk, curator of the German Pavilion and co-director of the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden says: "We see the present as a threshold. From here, with the German contribution, we look back at a vanishing past that can only be read in disturbing fragments and forward to the dystopias and utopias that reflect our present. We can only cross the threshold to the pavilion if we also unsettle its present in this sense, make it temporary, deprive it of its gesture of finality. We enter the pavilion in order to escape the garden walls of territorial thinking and move towards the wounded and fragile landscape of the island of La Certosa. La Certosa's open space makes our borders visible and criticises them."
A detailed curatorial introduction to Thresholds can be found here.
In cooperation with the German Foreign Office, ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen is responsible for implementing the German contribution to the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Artists have been presenting their contributions to the press and arts professionals in a preview since Tuesday, 16 April 2024.
The 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will be open to the public from Saturday 20 April 2024 until 24 November 2024.
Press Material
Press and image material can be found in the press section of the German Pavilion website.
Images of the opening can also be found in the press section of ifa – Institut für Auslandbeziehungen.
Presse Contact
German Pavilion 2024
Henriette Sölter | Jenni Schmitt
presse(at)deutscher-pavillon.org
Henriette Sölter: +49 152 5621 6790
Jenni Schmitt: +49 151 6268 8596
ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen
presse(at)ifa.de
Miriam Kahrmann: +49 151 2645 5509
Theresa Brüheim: +49 162 1001121
