The German pavilion houses Germany's national representation during the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

arts festivals.

Background

The Venice Biennale is an international art biennial exhibition held in

Venice, Italy Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

. Often described as "the Olympics of the

art world The art world comprises everyone involved in producing, commissioning, presenting, preserving, promoting, chronicling, criticizing, buying and selling fine art. It is recognized that there are many art worlds, defined either by location or alt ...

", the Biennale is a prestigious event for contemporary artists known for propelling career visibility. The festival has become a constellation of shows: a central exhibition curated by that year's artistic director,

national pavilions The national pavilions host each participant nation's official representation during the Venice Biennale, an international art biennial exhibition held in Venice, Italy. Some countries own pavilion buildings in the Giardini della Biennale while ...

hosted by individual nations, and independent exhibitions throughout Venice. The Biennale parent organization also hosts regular festivals in other arts: architecture, dance, film, music, and theater. Outside of the central, international exhibition, individual nations produce their own shows, known as pavilions, as their national representation. Nations that own their pavilion buildings, such as the 30 housed on the

Giardini Giardini is a suburb of Palermo, Sicily. It is further off from the central city. It was important in the history of the Cosa Nostra The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") ...

, are responsible for their own upkeep and construction costs as well. Nations without dedicated buildings create pavilions in venues throughout the city.

Organization and building

Architect Daniele Donghi designed the pavilion in a

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

. It was built in 1909 and originally displayed

Munich Secession The Munich Secession was an association of visual artists who broke away from the mainstream Munich Artists' Association in 1892, to promote and defend their art in the face of what they considered official paternalism and its conservative polic ...

works. The building was torn down and rebuilt by Ernst Haiger's design in 1938. The commissioner for the German contribution to Biennial is the

Federal Foreign Office , logo = DEgov-AA-Logo en.svg , logo_width = 260 px , image = Auswaertiges Amt Berlin Eingang.jpg , picture_width = 300px , image_caption = Entrance to the Foreign Office building , headquarters = Werderscher Mark ...

. On the recommendation of an advisory committee of museum directors and art experts, the ministry appoints a curator (formerly called a commissioner) responsible for the selection of the artists and the organisation of the contribution. This appointment is usually for two years in succession. The Sparkassen-Kulturfonds (culture fund) of the

Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband The Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV, ) is the association of German savings banks (german: Sparkassen) and the apex entity of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, the European Union's second-largest financial services group (after BNP Paribas ...

is the pavilion's main sponsor. The

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...

and, since 2013, the ''ifa Friends of the German Pavilion'' are also funders.Gareth Harris (May 15, 2013)
Down but not out, European countries invest in Venice Biennale pavilions
''

The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments ...

''. From 1982 until 1990 the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

organized its own exhibitions in the former Pavilion of Decorative Art. Germany's pavilion was redesigned by Ernst Haiger and inaugurated in 1938 by the ruling

Nazi government The government of Nazi Germany was totalitarian, run by the Nazi Party in Germany according to the Führerprinzip through the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany began with the fact that the Enabling Act was enacted to give Hitler's gover ...

, a fact that has inspired artistic responses from some presenters. At the 1993 Biennale, Germany's exhibition "Germania" by Hans Haacke involved destroying the Nazi era marble floor of the German pavillion.

Representation by year

Art

* 1950 —

Der Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider) is a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name, first published in mid-May ...

(Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl) * 1952 —

Die Brücke The Brücke (Bridge), also Künstlergruppe Brücke or KG Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later memb ...

(Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl) * 1954 — Heinz Battke, Leo Cremer,

Edgar Ende Edgar Karl Alfons Ende (23 February 1901 – 27 December 1965) was a German surrealist painter and father of the children's novelist Michael Ende. Ende attended the Altona School of Arts and Crafts from 1916 to 1920. In 1922 he married Gertru ...

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

, Karl Kunz,

Oskar Schlemmer Oskar Schlemmer (4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923, he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working at the wo ...

Rudolf Schlichter Rudolf Schlichter (or Rudolph Schlichter) (December 6, 1890 – May 3, 1955) was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of the ''Neue Sachlichkeit'' (New Objectivity) movement. Schlichter was born in Calw, Württemberg. Af ...

, Hans Uhlmann, Mac Zimmermann (Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl) * 1958 —

Karl Otto Götz Karl Otto Götz (22 February 1914 – 19 August 2017) often simply called K.O. Götz, was a German artist, filmmaker, draughtsman, printmaker, writer and professor of art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He was one of the oldest living and ac ...

, Fred Thieler, :de:Julius Bissier, Rolf Cavael, Werner Gilles,

Otto Herbert Hajek Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, Heinrich Kirchner,

Fritz Koenig Fritz Koenig (20 June 1924 – 22 February 2017) was one of the most important international German sculptors of the 20th century. Koenig's main work and most famous work is ''The Sphere''. The world's largest bronze sculpture of modern tim ...

, Hans Mettel,

Otto Pankok Otto Pankok (6 June 1893 – 10 October 1966) was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Biography Pankok was born in Mülheim on the Ruhr. In 1912 he began his formal training as an artist at the Art Academies in Düsseldorf and Weim ...

, Hans Platschek, E. Andreas Rauch,

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt until 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke. Life and work Schmidt-Rottluff was born in ...

, Johanna Schütz-Wolff,

Emil Schumacher Emil Schumacher (29 August 1912 in Hagen, Westfalen – 4 October 1999 in San José, Ibiza) was a German painter. He was an important representative of abstract expressionism in post-war Germany. In 2009 the Kunstquartier Hagen was inaugurat ...

, K. R. H. Sonderborg, Wilhelm Wessel, Hans Wimmer (Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl) * 1960 —

Willi Baumeister Willi Baumeister (22 January 1889 – 31 August 1955) was a German painter, scenic designer, art professor, and typographer. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. Life Born ...

, Julius Bissier, Emil Cimiotti, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Rupert Stöckl, Werner Schreib, Ernst Weiers (Kurator Konrad Röthel) * 1962 — Werner Gilles,

HAP Grieshaber Helmut Andreas Paul Grieshaber or HAP Grieshaber (15 February 1909 – 12 May 1981) was a German artist. His preferred medium was large format woodcuts. Biography Grieshaber was born in Rot an der Rot. He went to school in Nagold and later in R ...

Erich Heckel Erich Heckel (31 July 1883 – 27 January 1970) was a German painter and printmaker, and a founding member of the group ''Die Brücke'' ("The Bridge") which existed 1905–1913. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Oly ...

, Alfred Lörcher, Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff,

(Curator: Konrad Röthel) * 1964 —

Joseph Fassbender Joseph Fassbender (Faßbender) (14 April 1903, in Cologne – 5 January 1974, in Cologne) was a German painter and draughtsman. Life and art During the 1920s Fassbender was trained in painting by Richard Seewald at the Kölner Werkschulen. S ...

Norbert Kricke Norbert Kricke (30 November 1922 – 28 June 1984) was a German sculptor. Born in Düsseldorf, Kricke was a student of Richard Scheibe and Hans Uhlmann at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin. He started creating abstract sculptures from ...

(Commissioner: Eduard Trier) * 1966 —

Horst Antes Horst Antes (born 28 October 1936 Heppenheim, Germany) is a German artist and sculptor. After his Abitur, he studied from 1957 to 1959 under the important woodcutter HAP Grieshaber at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (today known as the Sta ...

, Günter Haese, Ferdinand Ris (Commissioner: Eduard Trier) * 1968 —

Horst Janssen Horst Janssen (14 November 192931 August 1995) was a German draftsman, printmaker, poster artist and illustrator. He had a prolific output of drawings, etchings, woodcuts, lithographs and wood engravings. Janssen was a student of Alfred Mahla ...

Richard Oelze Richard Oelze (June 29, 1900 – November 26, 1980) was a German painter. He is classified as a surrealist. Life He was born in Magdeburg. As of 1914, Oelze attended the School of Decorative Arts in Magdeburg, where he was trained as a lithograph ...

(Commissioner: Alfred Hentzen) * 1970 — Kaspar-Thomas Lenk,

Heinz Mack Heinz Mack (born March 8, 1931) is a German artist. Together with Otto Piene he founded the ZERO movement in 1957. He exhibited works at documenta in 1964 and 1977 and he represented Germany at the 1970 Venice Biennale. He is best known for ...

Georg Karl Pfahler Georg Karl Pfahler (8 October 1926 – 6 January 2002) was a German painter, printmaker and sculptor, and one of the leading proponents of post-war art in Germany. Biography After enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg between 1948 a ...

Günther Uecker Günther Uecker (; born 13 March 1930) is a German sculptor, op artist and installation artist. Biography Uecker was born in Wendorf, Mecklenburg.Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German ...

(Commissioner: Dieter Honisch) * 1976 —

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

Jochen Gerz Jochen Gerz (born 4 April 1940) is a German conceptual artist who lived in France from 1966 to 2007. His work involves the relationship between art and life, history and memory, and deals with concepts such as culture, society, public space, parti ...

, Reiner Ruthenbeck (Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz) * 1978 — Dieter Krieg,

Ulrich Rückriem Ulrich Rückriem (born 30 September 1938) is a German sculptor notable for his monumental stone sculptures. He lives and works in Cologne and London. His abstract works of art are often assigned to the style of minimalism and process art. Lif ...

(Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz) * 1980 —

Georg Baselitz Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the ...

Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan hav ...

(Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz) * 1982 —

Hanne Darboven Hanne Darboven (29 April 1941 – 9 March 2009) was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers. Early life and career Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich. She gr ...

Gotthard Graubner Gotthard Graubner (13 June 1930 – 24 May 2013) was a German painter, born in Erlbach, in Saxony, Germany. Graubner studied at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts in Germany, be ...

Wolfgang Laib Wolfgang Laib (born 25 March 1950 in Metzingen, Germany) is a German artist, predominantly known as a sculptor. He lives and works in a small village in southern Germany, maintaining studios in New York City, New York and South India. His work has ...

(Commissioner: Johannes Cladders) * 1984 —

Lothar Baumgarten Lothar Baumgarten (5 October 1944 – 2 December 2018) was a German conceptual artist, based in New York and Berlin. His work includes installation and also film. Early life and education Born 1944 in Rheinsberg, Germany, Baumgarten attended ...

A. R. Penck Ralf Winkler, alias A. R. Penck, who also used the pseudonyms ''Mike Hammer'', ''T. M.'', ''Mickey Spilane'', ''Theodor Marx'', "''a. Y.''" or just "''Y''" (5 October 1939 – 2 May 2017) was a German painter, printmaker, sculptor ...

(Commissioner: Johannes Cladders) * 1986 —

Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s ...

(Commissioner: Dierk Stemmler) * 1988 — Felix Droese (Commissioner: Dierk Stemmler) * 1990 —

Bernd and Hilla Becher Bernhard "Bernd" Becher (; 20 August 1931 – 22 June 2007), and Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015), were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their ...

Reinhard Mucha Reinhard is a German, Austrian, Danish, and to a lesser extent Norwegian surname (from Germanic ''ragin'', counsel, and ''hart'', strong), and a spelling variant of Reinhardt. Persons with the given name *Reinhard of Blankenburg (after 1107 – 11 ...

(Commissioner: Klaus Bußmann) * 1993 —

Hans Haacke Hans Haacke (born August 12, 1936) is a German-born artist who lives and works in New York City. Haacke is considered a "leading exponent" of Institutional Critique. Early life Haacke was born in Cologne, Germany. He studied at the '' Staatlic ...

Nam June Paik Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super hi ...

(Commissioner: Klaus Bußmann) * 1995 —

Katharina Fritsch Katharina Fritsch (born 14 February 1956) is a German sculptor."Katharina Fritsch: Arti ...

Martin Honert Martin Honert (born 1953) is a German artist based in Düsseldorf. He is known for making veristic sculptures of memories or images related to his childhood. Work Honert was born in Bottrop, West Germany and attended the Staatliche Kunstakademie ...

Thomas Ruff Thomas Ruff (born 10 February 1958) is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as "a master of edited and reimagined images". Ruff shares a studio on Düsseldorf's Hansaallee, with fellow German ...

(Commissioner:

Jean-Christophe Ammann Jean-Christophe Ammann (14 January 1939 – 13 September 2015) was a Swiss art historian and curator. Life and work Born in Berlin, Ammann, son of a chemist, grew up in a German-speaking family in Fribourg. He actually wanted to become a doctor ...

) * 1997 —

Gerhard Merz Gerhard is a name of Germanic origin and may refer to: Given name * Gerhard (bishop of Passau) (fl. 932–946), German prelate * Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1292–1340), German prince, regent of Denmark * Gerhard Barkhorn (1919–19 ...

Katharina Sieverding Katharina Sieverding (born 16 November 1944) is a German photographer known for her self-portraiture. Sieverding lives and works in Berlin and Düsseldorf. She is a professor emeritus at the University of the Arts, Berlin. Early life and educati ...

(Commissioner: Gudrun Inboden) * 1999 —

Rosemarie Trockel Rosemarie Trockel (born 13 November 1952) is a German conceptual artist. She has made drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos and installations, and has worked in mixed media. From 1985, she made pictures using knitting-machines. She is a prof ...

(Commissioner: Gudrun Inboden) * 2001 —

Gregor Schneider Gregor Schneider (born 1969 in Rheydt) is a German artist. His projects have proven controversial and provoked intense discussions. In 2001, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for his infamous work ''Totes Haus u r'' exhibited ...

(Commissioner: Udo Kittelmann) * 2003 —

Candida Höfer Candida Höfer (born 4 February 1944) is a German photographer. She is a former student of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Like other Becher students, Höfer's work is known for technical perfection and a strictly conceptual approach. From 1997 to 2000, ...

Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona. Kippenbe ...

(Curator: Julian Heynen) * 2005 —

Thomas Scheibitz Thomas Scheibitz (born 1968 in Radeberg, East Germany) is a German painter and sculptor. Together with Tino Sehgal he created the German pavilion on the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. He lives and works in Berlin. Life and work The son of an East ...

Tino Sehgal Tino is an Italian name or nickname, often a diminutive of the names Agostino, Costantino, Martino, Antonino, Valentino, Giustino, Sabatino, Faustino, and other names ending in -tino. Tino may refer to: People Given name * Tino Ausenda (1 ...

(Curator: Julian Heynen) * 2007 —

Isa Genzken Isa Genzken (born 27 November 1948) is a German artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her primary media are sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including concrete, plaster, wood and textile. She also works with photograp ...

(Curator:

Nicolaus Schafhausen Nicolaus Schafhausen (born 1965) is a German curator, director, author, and editor of numerous publications on contemporary art. Since 2012 he has been the Strategic Director of Fogo Island Arts, an initiative of the Canadian Shorefast Foundation to ...

) * 2009 —

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist who lives and works in New York City.

(Curator:

) * 2011 —

Christoph Schlingensief Christoph Maria Schlingensief (24 October 1960 – 21 August 2010) was a German theatre director, performance artist, and filmmaker. Starting as an independent underground filmmaker, Schlingensief later staged productions for theatres and festivals ...

(Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer) * 2013 —

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei (, ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly c ...

Romuald Karmakar Romuald Karmakar (born February 15, 1965) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born in Wiesbaden, Germany as the son of a Bengali father and a French mother. From 1977 to 1982 he lived in Athens. He has won several national ...

Santu Mofokeng Santu Mofokeng (October 19, 1956 – January 26, 2020) was a South African news and documentary photographer who worked under the alias ''Mofokengâ''. Mofokeng was a member of the Afrapix collective and won a Prince Claus Award.Prince Claus Fund ...

Dayanita Singh Dayanita Singh (born 18 March 1961) is an Indian photographer whose primary format is the book. She has published fourteen books. Singh's art reflects and expands on the ways in which people relate to photographic images. Her later works, draw ...

(Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer) xhibition was held at the French pavilion* 2015 —

Tobias Zielony Tobias Zielony (born 1973) is a German photographer and short filmmaker, living in Berlin. He has made work about communities at the margins of society, such as young people. In 2015, Zielony's series on African refugees in Germany, ''the Citizen' ...

Hito Steyerl Hito Steyerl (born 1 January 1966) is a German filmmaker, moving image artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary.

Olaf Nicolai Olaf Nicolai (born 1962 in Halle an der Saale) is a German conceptual artist. Life Olaf Nicolai grew up in Chemnitz (formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt) in the German Democratic Republic. From 1983 to 1988 he studied German language and literature at the u ...

, Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk (Curator: Florian Ebner) * 2017 —

Anne Imhof Anne Imhof (born 1978 in Giessen, Germany) is a German visual artist, choreographer, and performance artist who lives and works between Frankfurt and Paris. She is best known for her endurance art, although she cites painting as central to her prac ...

(Curator: Susanne Pfeffer)- (Winner of the Golden Lion for "Best National Participation"),

Oliver Weber Oliver Weber (born 7 September 1970 in Munich, West Germany) is a German photographer, Physician and Professor of Visual arts. Currently he lives and works on the Canary Island of La Gomera. His specialty areas are reportage, portrait and what h ...

* 2019 —

Natascha Sadr Haghighian Natascha Sadr Haghighian is an artist known for assuming multiple identities. Her official press releases and gallery biographies conflict on country of origin, date of birth, and place of residence. Her work is primarily concerned with investigat ...

(Curator: Franciska Zólyom)Andrew Russeth (October 25, 2018)
Under the Name Natascha Süder Happelmann, Natascha Sadr Haghighian Will Rep Germany at 2019 Venice Biennale
''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...

''. * 2022 —

Maria Eichhorn Maria Eichhorn (born November 19, 1962, in Bamberg) is a German artist based in Berlin. She is best known for site-specific works and installations that investigate political and economic systems, often revealing their intrinsic absurdity or the ...

(Curator: )

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{Portal bar, Germany, Visual arts National pavilions German contemporary art