“Her concern with history has a contemporary resonance,” said jury member Kitty Scott on the occasion of the awards ceremony for the Prize of the National Gallery for Young Art, noting the combination of art and science which so impressed the jurors.* The Council of the Schering Stiftung shared this view in its decision to sponsor the development of “You have time to show yourself before other eyes” for the Berlin Biennale. In this latest project, the Berlin-based Mexican artist explores the history of archaeological research and the resultant interpretation, reconstruction, destruction and annexation of objects from Mesoamerica. The installation comprises modified plaster casts of archaeological finds interwoven with a selection of objects from the museum’s collection. The project reflects one of the main themes of the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art: an examination of the exchange of goods and cultural research objects from around the world that was initiated in the 19th century, highlighting the writing of world history in its earliest stages as a history of both dependencies and intercultural exchange. The 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art brings together local and international artistic positions that address the intersections of larger historical narratives with the lives of individuals. In doing so the Biennale seeks to form a counterweight to empirical and authoritarian historical approaches and processes of historicization.

A catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition “You have time to show yourself before other eyes” by BOMDIABOATARDEBOANOITE.

(*) Source: http://www.monopol-magazin.de/artikel/20107271/Mariana-Castillo-Deball-gewinnt-preis-der-nationalgalerie.html , last accessed 25/04/2014