Thresholds. Yael Bartana and Ersan Mondtag / German Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2024

Official description: Every moment is a threshold between the vanishing past and an unclear future. This uncertain, intermediate position of the present applies equally to everyone. For those affected by migration, however, it is a fundamental three-dimensional and bodily experience, because the current state of migration is always one of living at the intersection of different belongings. This is where the historiographical and, thus, political difference from the dominant societies’ primarily territorial or national perspectives lies. Under the title Thresholds, the German contribution explores history and the future in three scenarios: In the first scenario, artist, photographer, and filmmaker Yael Bartana departs from a present perceived as catastrophic; a world on the brink of total destruction. In the second scenario, the theatre and opera director Ersan Mondtag develops a space that contrasts the monumental character of the pavilion with a fragmentary, seemingly minor narrative. In a third scenario, the contribution engages in building a bridge to another location outside the Giardini: the island of La Certosa. Here the artists Michael Akstaller, Nicole L’Huillier, Robert Lippok, and Jan St. Werner create a resonant space with works that focus on the significance of the moment of temporal and spatial transition.

Thresholds. Yael Bartana and Ersan Mondtag / German Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2024. April 19, 2024.