OSTRALE Biennale O21, Breathturn

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

The OSTRALE Biennale O21 Breathturn international exhibition of contemporary arts has closed its doors on the 3rd of October 2021. During the 3 month opening period, 20.000 visitors have come to the exhibition venues in the Robotron Kantine, the Stadtentwässerung Dresden and the Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße memorial museum, among them 2.500 students.

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.

Looking at the environmental, social and economic dynamics of the last decade (or, to put it bluntly, "the end of the world as we know it"), it is increasingly clear that the imperative of continuous growth and development is no longer a sustainable vision for our future, if we want one at all.

But even though more and more individuals come to this realization, the greater systems that govern our world and our societies seem less willing to change their ways. Sometimes it feels as if we are caught in a current against which it is pointless to fight, but swimming upstream seems more important than ever as we do not have as much time as would normally be needed for such fundamental cultural shifts.

The role of art in this context is problematic: should it serve as a means of to develop sensibility and empathy for a deeper understanding of these questions? Or would this be a restriction of artistic freedom and an invitation to propaganda? Is art a luxury of the developed world that should be abolished first when we reduce our consumption and limit our material needs? Or is it, on the contrary, the most important tool to survive and maintain our hopes in an otherwise hopeless and frightening world?

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 has seen the first important steps in this direction, as Dresden's two leading organisations for contemporary visual arts, the Kunsthaus Dresden and the OSTRALE – Centre for Contemporary Art staged temporary events in and around the building. First, artists invited by the Kunsthaus Dresden activated the facades and the outer areas of the Kantine with their international art project North East South West. Then during the summer, the Kantine served 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 was 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 served 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 came as a natural partner for OSTRALE's 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 played a vital role in the organisation of the OSTRALE Biennale O21, especially when it came 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, Split (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 was 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 confronted the historical context of the location with international contemporary artworks and aimed to establish a dialogue between the past, the present and the future as well.

The 2021 edition of the OSTRALE Biennale presented more than 140 artists from 34 countries, Germany, Lithuania, Croatia, Hungary, Sweden, Serbia, Turkey, India, Northern Macedonia, Singapore, Italy, France, Togo, Netherlands, Russia, USA, Poland, Austria, China, Ukraine, Slovenia, Moldova, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Finland, Bangladesh, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, Peru, Kosovo, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, UK.

Nils Agdler & Timo Menke (SE), Emil Andersson (SE), Sanja Anđelković (RS), Katharina Andress (DE), Aleksas Andriuškevičius (LT), Aurelija Maknytė (LT), Seçkin Aydin (TR), Devadeep Bani Sarmah Gupta (IN), Gildo Bavčević (HR), Dávid Biró (HU), Bojan Mrđenović (HR), Jana Borsche (DE), Viktor Brim (DE), Janos Brückner (HU), Gaby Burckhardt (DE), Daniel Burkhardt (DE), Nadja Buttendorf (DE), Elena Chemerska (MK), Daniel Chong (SG), István Csákány (HU), Mauro Cuppone (IT), Márta Czene (HU), Etienne de France (FR), Abdoul-Ganiou Dermani (TG-DE), Tibor Dieters (NL), Alexei Dmitriev (RU), Katerina Duda (HR), Gabriele Engelhardt (DE), Lucy Cordes Engelman (US), Anna Fabricius (HU), Zsolt Ferenczy (HU), Mona Freudenreich (DE), Márk Fridvalszki (HU), Friederike & Uwe (DE), Áron Galambos (HU), Nadia Galbiati (IT), Mindaugas Gapševičius (LT), Gabrielė Gervickaitė (LT), Bronė Sofija Gideikaitė (LT), Harald Gnade (DE), Goran Škofić (HR), Igor Grubić (HR), Michael Grudziecki (PL-DE), Marko Gutić Mižimakov (HR),  László Győrffy (HU), Péter Tamás Halász (HU), Willem Harbers (NL), Michael Heindl (AT),  Roland Hermanns (DE), Di Hu (CN), Ana Hušman (HR), doplgenger (Isidora Ilić & Boško Prostran, RS), Alexander Jakimenko (UA-DE), Yuki Jungesblut (DE), Nikita Kadan (UA), Eginhartz Kanter (DE), Anuschka Kilian-Buck (DE), Neža (SI), Eugenijus Kolmogorcevas (LT), KOLXOZ (Maxim Polyakov, Anton Polyakov & Viktor Vejvoda, MD & CZ), Vikenti Komitski (BG), Endre Koronczi (HU), Volker Kreidler (DE), Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó (HU),  Marcus Lerviks (FI), Irma Leščinskaitė (LT), Glorija Lizde (HR), Larion Lozovoy (UA), Dean Maassen (DE), Éva Magyarósi (HU), Firoz Mahmud (BD), Casey McKee (US), Toni Meštrović (HR), studio ASYNCHROME (Marleen Leitner & Michael Schitnig, AT), Niko Mihaljevic (HR), Péter Lichter (HU), Ivan Milenković (RS), Judit Lilla Molnár (HU), Sarvenaz Mostofey (IR), Petra Mrša (HR), Christoph & Sebastian Mügge (SE), Sali Muller (LU), Csaba Nemes (HU), Thomas Neumaier (DE), Klára Orosz (HU), Andrea Palašti (RS), Lav Paripović (HR), Predrag Pavić (HR), Julija Pociūtė (LT), Renata Poljak (HR), Ghenadie Popescu (MD), Marko Rodics (HU), Ivan Ramljak (HR), Farid Rasulov (AZ), Jens Rausch (DE), Melanie Richter (DE), Jana Rinchenbachová (CZ), Fátima Rodrigo (PE), Sandra Rosenstiel & Hanne Lange (DE), Nika Rukavina (HR), Neli Ružić (HR), Catherine Sanke (DE), Remis Ščerbauskas (LT), Philipp A. Schäfer (DE), Jan Sebesta (CZ), Driton Selmani (XK), Stipan Tadić (HR), Lana Stojićević (HR), Kamen Stoyanov (BU), Attila Szabó (HU), Ottó Szabó (HU), Eszter Szabó (HU), Zsuzsanna Szegedi-Varga (US), Kamilla Szij (HU), Hajnal Szolga (HU), József Szolnoki (HU), Casper ter Heerdt (NL), Ivana Tkalčić (HR), Laura Erika Urbanski (DE), Philipp Valenta (DE), Arturas Valiauga (LT), Daina Vanagaitė-Belžaikienė (LT), Vangjush Vellahu (AL), Xueying Wang (GB), Guido Weggenmann (DE), Anette Wörner (DE), xtro realm (Gideon Horváth & Rita Süveges & Anna Zilahi, HU), Dia Zékány (HU), Yinglin Zhou (CN), Die Zukunft - Students of the Art Academies of Dresden and Wrocław (Ida Sielska, Jarosław Słomski, Taina L. Bemmerlein & Veronika Pfaffinger, PL & DE)