Nothing to declare? World maps of art since ’89 at Akademie der Künste in Berlin

Nothing to declare? World maps of art since ’89, is the new documentary project scale exhibition devoted to the global processes of change in the art world since 1989, opening on 1 February at Akademie der Künste. The geopolitical change that took place in 1989 ushered in an era of worldwide biennales, whose geography bid farewell to Western Art, with its old contradiction between the centre and the periphery. With this theme as an art metropolis Berlin presents the world in the context of a reorganisation of the art scenes.

The claim to universal validity of Western modernity can be with the end of colonialism and imperialism are no longer maintained. The political liberation movements and the cultural theory of emancipation from the interpretative authority of the West have led to an international network of art world, but also to a new understanding of artistic practice and aesthetic positions.

The heart of this exhibition is a panorama room as a media installation, which illustrates the passage of time and the geographical expansion of the global practice of art using a wide range of data. In so doing, a development becomes recognisable, which is no longer to be interpreted only as pure art history, but rather requiring multiple forms of re-narration – geopolitical, social, economic and cultural. The creation of a new critical practice in the arts also corresponds to these structural changes. The research project Global Art and the Museum (GAM) at the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Centre for Art and Media) in Karlsruhe has dedicated itself to this theme since 2006. An initial comprehensive review was presented in the exhibition The Global Contemporary at the ZKM. This project is now continued in cooperation with the Academy of Arts, and will continue in Berlin with selected art works and films by Halil Altındere, Pieter Hugo, Christian Jankowski, Rasheed Araeen etc.

In the framework programme the Akademie der Künsteis presenting the performance La Beauté du Diable / The Devil’s Beauty by the dancer and choreographer Koffi Kôkô. The theme of the exhibition also will be discussed in a symposium by Goethe-Institut Lissabon on 2 and 3 February under the title Rethinking cosmopolitism.

Nothing to declare? World maps of art since ’89, 1 February until 24 March, Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin. www.adk.de

Credit: adk13_Nothing_Ryu, Ho-Yeol Ryu, Flughafen, 2005. © Ho-Yeol Ryu. ZKM |Karlsruhe