Ersan Mondtag to show at Venice Biennale
Ersan Mondtag will create work for the German Pavilion at this year's Venice Art Biennale (20 April to 24 November). The theme this year is Thresholds, curated by Çağla Ilk and commissioned by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
In its press release, the Institut describes the the event: ‘Under the title Thresholds, the German Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale 2024 narrates history and the future from various artistic positions. Thresholds stands for the present as a place where no one can stay and that only exists because one thing has occurred and another still awaits. For people with biographies characterized by migration, the temporal perception of the present as a threshold between the retrospective and the prospective is paired with a fundamental spatial and physical experience of living at the intersection of different belongings.’
Mondtag’s work is is one of three scenarios: ‘Ersan Mondtag develops a space that contrasts the monumental character of the pavilion with a fragmentary, seemingly minor narrative. In his work he explores what would happen, if it were possible to revive past eras as living environments. By creating a theatrical cosmos of representation and remembrance, Mondtag sets rigid national historiographical constructs in motion.’
His scenario appears alongside one by Yael Bartana, and another by several artists, which connects to the space outside the Pavilion.
