BB4 takes the ambiguity of the German term "Handlung" that is impossible to translate in all its levels of meaning, but it is somehow located between action, activity, agency and participation, but at the same time it could also mean story or even narration as a starting point to examine diverse practices, which are proposing various forms of action. BB4 attempts to scrutinize and to exhaust the promise that might just be a supposition of art taking place in the public sphere and is it thus creating possibilities for (political) action or does the artwork itself has already inherited this moment of action?
Therefore, the exhibition rather tries to articulate questions and suggests different prospects than to formulate answers. BB4 will show artistic projects that deal with direct involvement in actions, participation and public space as well as community based art, but also works that are based on questioning, correcting and subverting history and historiography form, among others, a central point. The biennial aims to intensify the interaction with the urban and political context in Bucharest by inviting participants from different fields.
CURATOR
Felix Vogel (b. 1987) is a researcher and curator. Studies in art history, media theory, philosophy and aesthetics at HfG Karlsruhe and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. His research and curatorial practice is focused on the relations between aesthetics and the social sphere.
Consequently, he is interested in areas linked to activism, gender, historical avant-gardes as well as participative architecture. In 2008 he edited two books for One Star Press (Paris): "Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil: Fin de representation" and "Lia Perjovschi: Sense." and has written for different magazines, among others PAVILION, Cura, Displayer and AFI. Felix Vogel gave lectures in institutions such as Index (Stockholm), Evento (Bordeaux) and PAVILION UNICREDIT (Bucharest). He taught workshops and seminars at HEAD Geneva, Free Academy Bucharest and 1.Curatorial Symposium Sofia/Plovdiv. Felix Vogel lives and works in Berlin.
ARTISTS
The curator of BB4 has selected 37 participants/artists from 19 countries, who will show works produced between 1935 and 2010 and some of them specially for BUCHAREST BIENNALE.
LOCATIONS
Each of the 6 locations chosen for the BB4 are justified by their history, socio-political involvement, but also by the topographical location: Centre for Visual Introspection, The Geology Museum, LaBOMBA, PAVILION UNICREDIT - centre for contemporary art and culture (where the info-point will be located), Political Science Institute, ParadisGaraj
PUBLICATIONS
PAVILION - journal for politics and culture will dedicate a special issue to the Biennale with contributions by all the artists and texts by Felix Vogel, Bruno Latour, Chantal Mouffe, Maria Muhle, Ludger Schwarte, Reinhold Martin, Hito Steyerl, Eugen Radescu, Wu Ming, Julia Brotea and Daniel Boland, Andrei Craciun, Antonio Negri, Doina Petrescu, Razvan Ion, Peter Osborne.
A mini-guide will be published to be a handy instrument for navigation through the biennale.
The journal and the guide can be ordered soon from www.pavilionjournal.org or can be directly purchased from the info-point of Bucharest Biennale 4.
SIMULTANEOUS PARALLEL EVENTS
A wide range of lectures, debates, performances and other parallel events will take place especially during the opening days and during the whole course of Bucharest Biennale 4. Among the opening days are lectures by Chantal Mouffe and Maria Muhle as well as a parallel exhibition project with HEAD Geneva. From June 25 and 26 an international conference on "Comparative Art History: The Biennale Principle" will take place in collaboration with the Swiss Art History Institute; speakers include Beat Wyss, Zdenka Badovinac and other renowned scholars and curators.
