Berlin Biennale as a Reflection of Aesthetic Topology

The fourth Berlin biennale reflects the "melancholia and insecurity" (Mack 2006) of contemporary art. Born of the spatial dynamics of circulation of artworks, artists and curators, the Berlin art biennial translates their nomadic movement into the space of possibilities of sensation and emotion that draw on "le déplacement, la répartition/déploiement, la dérive" (Perniola 1995) as their conditions. No longer based on the experiences of "la permanence, l'enracinement, le domicile" (Perniola 1995), contemporary art mourns the loss of models of secure cultural belonging. As a space that is dedicated to the transgressive marginality of contemporary art, Berlin biennale is shaped by the melancholia that spatial unmooring of individual and collective identities calls forward in the present post-national moment. Urban spaces in which the Berlin biennale installed its exhibitions also document the melancholia and insecurity deriving from their witness to the passage of historical time. As a temporary backdrop to contemporary art, these urban spaces connect the city the biennial takes place in and the aesthetic sensibility of global culture to each other.

Positioned at a spatial intersection between the nomadic topologies of cultural flows and the sedentary topologies of urban places, Berlin biennale strives for a resolution of the contradictory relation between art and space. The resultant topology of art takes inspiration from the notions of simultaneity, mixture, and transit (Perniola 1995).