Central Europe Eastern Time

The 14th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art takes place from June 5 to September 12, 2027 at various locations across Berlin and is curated by Vasyl Cherepanyn. Under the title Central Europe Eastern Time, the 14th Berlin Biennale proposes a new reading of Berlin from the East and offers a perspective on Europe shaped by those regions, experiences, and societal realities that have long been pushed to the margins of the European narrative. The title serves as a navigation tool, an instrument of orientation, and describes a chronotope in which space (tópos) and time (chrónos) are inseparably connected. It points to how shifting political, economic, and ideological systems define today’s conditions of human coexistence. In this sense, orientation is not only a question of where we are, but also of understanding the different historical and political times that simultaneously come to pass in our present. The exhibition expands upon the spatial and temporal coordinates already inscribed in the name of the Berlin Biennale and places the city within a broader Eastern European context, stretching from the Balkans to the Baltics, from Central Europe to the South Caucasus and beyond.

Central Europe Eastern Time also addresses the changing relationship between the East and the West that has been materially embedded in the city’s various historical layers: in its architecture, its institutions, its politics of memory, and its social fabric. Building on this, the Berlin Biennale will take place at exhibition venues such as KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, as well as other locations across the city. It will enter public space, infrastructures, sites of transit and remembrance, where the conditions of the present are lived, administered, and contested; where social and political life is directly entangled with questions of class, labour, citizenship, and institutional control. Mapping becomes a guiding principle of the exhibition, with each location approached through its particular history, function, and site-specificity. Their constellation proposes a new topology of Berlin and different routes through the city. Central Europe Eastern Time focuses on artistic practices that offer both a precise understanding of their respective locations while simultaneously pointing to broader structures that shape the region and its present.

About the Berlin Biennale
The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art takes place every two years at different locations in Berlin. Since its first edition in 1998, the Berlin Biennale has been committed to creating experimental exhibition and event programs, together with renowned curators, presenting artistic and political positions in Berlin’s urban space. The Berlin Biennale explores contemporary international artistic developments and, due to its socially and politically engaged approach, is considered one of the most important exhibitions worldwide. Each edition brings together artists, thinkers, and interested audiences from different areas of society, opening up a dialogue with the inhabitants of the city.

The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art is organized by KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. The Berlin Biennale is funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). The Kulturstiftung des Bundes is funded by the Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).