Robert Lehniger

Munich Biennale 2020/2021

“Point of NEW Return”

Many “NEW Returns” unfold faster than one thought: In every existential crisis, the arts were a (co-)decisive moment of renewal, of new thinking, reflection, departure, turning back, a NEW return – for every individual as well as for the community. Due to the effects of the Corona pandemic the Munich Biennale 2020 became for the first time in its history a dynamic festival – it became a metaphor for the necessary flexible handling of our present and a model for the mobility, topicality, and relevance of the arts.

World premieres that couldn’t be performed in Munich in May 2020 due to the pandemic have, in the meantime, celebrated their premieres elsewhere, or will be performed in Munich in the coming months. In April 2021 three productions are expected to be performed in Munich as part of the program: “Once to be realised” – six encounters with Jani Christou’s “Project Files” by Beat Furrer, Barblina Meierhans, Olga Neuwirth, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, and Christian Wolff; “Große Reise in entgegengesetzter Richtung” – Expeditionen ins Archiv der Wirklichkeitsfabrik (“A Grand Journey in the Opposite Direction” – expeditions to the reality factory’s archive) by Yair Klartag, Anda Kryeziu, Christiane Pohle / Zahava Rodrigo, Tobias Eduard Schick / Katharina Vogt, and Ror Wolf; and “Transstimme” (“Transvoice”), an opera in two acts by Fabià Santcovsky.

The “Salon of Wondering and Views,” which is an extension of the theme and spirit of the Munich Biennale, will also continue to take place.