Focus Workshop with Zoncy Heavenly

The Focus Workshops are closely related to the Focus Tours and place an emphasis on deeper engagement with selected themes, artistic works, or questions raised by the 13th Berlin Biennial. They invite participants to consciously take more time to explore specific areas offocus.

At the meeting point, the workshop starts with a lucky draw—a familiar tradition in which participants randomly select a card that determines their role for the event. Participants could find themselves among one of these key figures of a Biennale for contemporary art: an artist, curator, director, sponsor, collector, critic, journalist, or visitor.

A fox guides us through 28 pieces of art showcased in the KW Institute for Contemporary Art building and its courtyard. Each participant takes on the persona of a fox, concealing their true identity from both the group and the surrounding art context. The fox provides clues on how the Berlin Biennale navigates the balance between local cultural expressions and global dialogues, featuring newly presented and re-contextualized historical works.

After the tour, each participant reveals their true identity by delivering a public speech about the 13th Berlin Biennale using a megaphone. (Each speech will be recorded, pending the consent of the participants.) In this way, aco-authorship is claimed to interpret the Berlin Biennale’s relevancy against the surrounding localities.

Zoncy Heavenly, *1987 in Kawthaung, Burma. Places of belonging: Berlin. Affinity: Diverze Youth Art Platform, Association for Myanmar Contemporary Arts (AMCA).