DRESDEN 2021 (DE)

OSTRALE Biennale O21, Breathturn

13. International Exhibition of Contemporary Arts
Dresden 01.07. – 03.10.2021

Robotron-Kantine
01.07. – 03.10.2021
Zinzendorfstraße 5, 01069 Dresden
Wed – Fri 10am to 6pm and 6pm to 7pm evening ticket
Sat – Sun 11am to 7pm and 7pm to 8pm evening ticket
Entrance fee: 15 EUR (reduced price: 10 EUR)
Timeslot-reservation obligatory
Reserve your ticket here

Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße
14.07. – 03.10.2021
Bautzner Str. 112A, 01099 Dresden
Mon – Sun 10am to 6pm
Prices and tickets here

Stadtentwässerung / Kläranlage Kaditz
06.07. – 03.10.2021
Scharfenberger Str. 152, 01139 Dresden
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays at 10am, 1pm and 3pm
Visit through guided tours with registration
Book your guided tour here

OSTRALE.Basis Übigau
17.07. – 03.10.2021
Rethelstraße 45, 01139 Dresden
Tue – Sat 12am to 6pm

BREATHTURN

In the rivers north the future / I cast the net (Paul Celan)

Being human is not enough, and already too much. Sometimes we act like robots, but want to feel like animals. How can we breathe and rethink work and pleasure, art and industry, politics and poetics, when everything flows into each other, like streams into a river? Is the whole planet our home or just the square meters we occupy?

Between disorientation and reorientation, to find new directions and avoid dead ends, we need to breathe differently. We have to change our perspective and pay attention to those at the borders of our field of vision: the misfits, the oppressed, and the unknown, but also biospheres, buildings and social spaces. At the gate of a new, post-pandemic era, exhausted but hopeful, curious and ready for a change, the OSTRALE in 2021 explores the ways we coexist with our fellow humans, animals and our complex environment.

Gledajući okolišnu, socijalnu i ekonomsku dinamiku posljednjeg desetljeća (ili, najblaže rečeno, "kraj svijeta kakvim ga poznajemo"), sve je jasnije da imperativ kontinuiranog rasta i razvoja nije održiva vizija budućnosti, ako je uopće još možemo/uspijevamo imaginirati.

No, iako sve više pojedinaca dolazi do te spoznaje, veći sustavi koji upravljaju našim svijetom i našim društvima izgledaju manje spremni mijenjati svoje načine funkcioniranja. Ponekad se čini kao da smo uhvaćeni u struju, brzac protiv koje(g) se nema smisla boriti, ali baš zbog toga pružiti otpor i zaplivati uzvodno čini se važnije nego ikad jer trenutno ne raspolažemo s puno vremena koliko bi nam inače trebalo za takve temeljne (kulturne) promjene.

Uloga umjetnosti u ovom je kontekstu prilično kompleksna: treba li ona služiti kao sredstvo za razvijanje senzibiliteta i empatije poradi dubljeg razumijevanja ovih pitanja? Ili bi to bilo ograničenje umjetničke slobode i njezino svođenje na propagandu? Je li umjetnost samo luksuz razvijenog svijeta kojega bi se prvog trebalo riješiti jednom kad smanjimo potrošnju i ograničimo materijalne potrebe? Ili je, naprotiv, upravo umjetnost najvažnije sredstvo za preživljavanje i održavanje kakve-takve nade u inače beznadnom i zastrašujućem svijetu danas?'

The OSTRALE Biennale in Dresden is the third largest international exhibition of contemporary art in Germany, which took place every year from 2007 on during the summer months and was changed into a biennale in 2017. It is not a sales exhibition per se, which gives us the freedom to discuss socially relevant topics regardless of market developments.

As "venue pioneers", the OSTRALE opens up unused industrial and cultural brownfields. First the exhibitions have taken place at various venues of the former slaugtherhouse complex of Ostragehege in Dresden, as well as other similar post-industrial venues all over Europe. After leaving the Ostragehege area, the OSTRALE Biennale in 2019 took place at the Historical Tobacco Factory f6 in the Striesen district and at 5 other decentralised locations in Dresden. This last edition welcomed more than 30.000 visitors in just over two months, 9.000 of them being students from Dresden and all over Saxony.

For the OSTRALE Biennale O21, thanks to the generous support of the real estate company Gerchgroup AG, a unique chance has been given the organizers to present the exhibition for the first time in the very heart of Dresden in 2021. The building is a witness of the Eastern Modernism („Ostmodern") and an often overlooked part of the architectural and social history of the city of Dresden.

The Robotron Kantine is the former company restaurant and one of the last standing buildings of the already demolished Robotron computer factory complex, once a crown jewel of technological innovation, but also of architectural optimism, in Dresden and in the whole DDR in the 1960s and 1970s. However, after the closure of the factory, its fate has been somewhat troublesome. For a while, it has served as a venue for various cultural activities and also as a rehearsal room for the nearby Semperoper, but in the last few years it has been standing empty in an ever deteriorating state. The discussion about its possible reactivation gained more momentum during the preparation phase of Dresden's application for the title of European Capital of Culture for 2025, in frame of which several new concepts were developed for the building. Now, as the city of Dresden is no longer in competition for the title, the future of the Robotron Kantine remains uncertain. Opening it up through art can pave the way to revive it as a cultural venue.

The year 2021 will see the first important steps in this direction, as Dresden's two leading organisations for contemporary visual arts, the Kunsthaus Dresden and the OSTRALE - Centar za suvremenu umjetnost are staging temporary events in and around the building. First, artists invited by the Kunsthaus Dresden will activate the facades and the outer areas of the Kantine with their international art project North East South West. Then during the summer, the Kantine will serve as the main venue of the OSTRALE Biennale O21, presenting artworks from around 160 artists from all over the world, selected by an international team of curators from Croatia, Lithuania and Hungary, with the leaders of OSTRALE accompanying the jury.

Another important venue of the OSTRALE Biennale O19 will be the Stadtentwässerung Dresden (the city's waste water facility), right in the vicinity of the OSTRALE Center in Dresden-Übigau. The fascinating sites of the facility will serve as an exciting backdrop to the exhibited artworks, bringing science, industry and visual arts into an unusual dialogue. With its long-time engagement in environmental and climate issues and its programs to engage and educate young generations about the responsible handling of wastewater and natural resources, Stadtentwässerung Dresden comes as a natural partner for OSTRALE's current program, which also deals with the questions of our relationships to rivers, water, sustainability, and the broader connections between society, environment and the arts.

This theme is also the focus of Flowing Connections, a cultural cooperation co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, that plays a vital role in the organisation of the OSTRALE Biennale O21, especially when it comes to the curatorial process, the preparation and the opening of the exhibition. It also enables us to take a selection of the artworks presented in Dresden to exhibitions in Budapest, Rijeka/Split/Zagreb (Croatia) and the European Capital of Culture Kaunas (Lithuania) in the year 2022. The exhibitions are accompanied by other activities such as an artist in residence programme, workshops and symposia on issues of digitalisation, sustainability, communication strategies and inclusion.

Since April 2020, the OSTRALE.basis in Übigau Dresden is our new headquarters and an important venue for the artistic residencies of the Biennale! Every year, OSTRALE welcomes artists from all over Europe in its artist apartment, where they can stay and do their artistic research. The OSTRALE.basis is not only the "backstage" of the Biennale, but is also meant to be a social space for the community of Übigau where we plan to host a cinema salon, literary readings, artistic workshops and eco-sustainable activities. The community is invited to help shape the cultural program and participate in this process of urban renewal to activate this district with a vibrant cultural life. At the moment, "The Future Project" is running in the garden of the OSTRALE.basis, a series of creative workshops with students from the Art University of Dresden and Wroclaw for the creation of a sustainable art garden together with the children of the local children's house Sonnenschein. The OSTRALE.basis also offers local artists a platform for exhibition and project development.

Another cooperation partner is the Bautzner Straße Memorial Museum. A tour of the only original Stasi prison in Saxony shows how the state's repressive apparatus tried to eliminate its political opponents. The exhibition and impressive archive materials in the former office of the Dresden Stasi chief reveal the everyday life of the security service. The density of these historical spaces, combined with interactive exhibitions and eyewitness accounts, is unique in Germany. The intervention of the OSTRALE Biennale O21 confronts the historical context of the location with international contemporary artworks and aims to establish a dialogue between the past, the present and the future as well.