The 1. Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art – Berlin/Berlin with 3 de luxe, Franz Ackermann, Heike Baranowsky, Alexander Baumgardt / Jan Rikus Hillmann, Bless, John Bock, Monica Bonvicini, Jiri Ceiver, Thomas Demand, Rineke Dijkstra, Stan Douglas, Olafur Eliasson, Michael Elmgreen/Ingar Dragset, Aris Fioretos, Jürgen Frisch, Gob Squad, Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Douglas Gordon, Grüntuch/Ernst, Alexa Henning von Lange, Christine Hill, Thomas Hirschhorn, Irene und Christine Hohenbüchler, Carsten Höller, Honey Suckle Company, Fabrice Hybert, Johannes Kahrs, Fred Kelemen, Christoph Keller, Xavier Le Roy, Jan Liesegang, Armin Linke, LSD, John de Maya, Jonathan Meese, Mathieu Mercier, mikro e. V., Till Müller-Klug, Walter Musacchi, MVRDV, Bert Neumann, Olaf Nicolai, Gabriel Orozco, Philipp Oswalt, Our House, Manfred Pernice, Daniel Pflumm, Steven Pippin, Tobias Rehberger, Pipilotti Rist, Ugo Rondinone, F.R.E.d RUBIN., Markus Schinwald, Christoph Schlingensief, Anatolij Shuravlev, Andreas Slominski, Sean Snyder, Kristina Solomoukha, Tim Staffel, Georges Tony Stoll, Jörg Stollmann, subREAL, Sarah Sze, Vibeke Tandberg, Thatchers, Wolfgang Tillmanns, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Vogt + Weizenegger, Marijke van Warmerdam, Beatrice Wrobel, Andrea Zittel took place from September 30, 1998 to December 30, 1999.

The Biennale was based on an interdisciplinary approach. In order to reflect contemporary art in its multiple layers the exhibition was designed as a forum for artists, architects, designers, writers, musicians, choreographers and fashion designers, theatre directors and cinematographers.

The curatorial team started their work by looking at Berlin itself. Ideal points of departure became: the city’s hybrid cultural landscape, its future role as cultural capital (at the time a big topic for the media) and presentations that showed the rich diversity of contemporary art production.

More than 70 international artists that were then based or at least temporarily lived in Berlin showed their art (mostly new productions) at this three-months exhibition. The selected exhibition venues—the KW Institute for Contemporary Art on Auguststraße, the dilapidated building of the Academy of Arts at Pariser Platz and the former Postfuhramt on Oranienstraße—were chosen to reflect the transition and diversity of Berlin. Aimed at an international public, the exhibition Berlin/Berlin intended to highlight the permanently changing character of the city and foster interdisciplinary collaborations between individual artists over the course of the biennale.

The idea of a biennale in Germany was born in the context of the Biennale di Venezia 1995 after the forum for young contemporary art aperto (founded in 1981) had been lost. Departing from the local, the 1st Berlin Biennale was an international exhibition, which tried to describe the city’s current discourse and give international artists living in Berlin a public platform.

Curators: Klaus Biesenbach mit Hans Ulrich Obrist und Nancy Spector

Venues: Akademie der Künste (Pariser Platz), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Postfuhramt Berlin-Mitte

Further information: https://www.berlinbiennale.de/de/biennalen/5/berlin-berlin