09 Apr 2021

Update Bucharest Biennale

Bucharest, April 5, 2021 - Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic developments, we are unfortunately forced to announce the decision to cancel the second part of BUCHAREST BIENNALE 9 programmed under the curatorship of Henk Slager with a.o. participating artists Tiong Ang and Co. (NL), Claudia Brăileanu (RO), and Gustafsson & Haapoja (FI), which was to be open from May 6, 2021.

The planning security for all actors involved in the event is at this moment simply not given and the health risk is too high. Therefore, after careful consideration, we have come to the unavoidable decision to cancel the scheduled May 2021 activities of BB9, so that BB10 can take place in its entirety from May 2022. Still, we are pleased that the first part of BB9 successfully took place in June 2020.

Bucharest situation it is still dramatic and we are currently required to avoid personal contacts due to the pandemic. The quarantine is strong and travels are not possible. Holding a biennale cannot be reconciled under these conditions. We also see ourselves as having a responsibility to you, the artists, the program partners, the audience, and our staff.

Even if it should be possible to visit exhibitions under even stricter Covid-19 protection measures such as negative attestations, etc., these requirements cannot be guaranteed by many program partners due to limited personnel and financial resources.

The reduced benefit and output is disproportionate to the enormous effort put in by the people involved, first and foremost the participants and our dedicated team.

BUCHAREST BIENNALE 10 is scheduled to take place starting May 2022 and it is curated by JARVIS, the first AI curator in history using as venues AR and VR.

Special thanks to all our supporters for this complicated edition: Netherlands Embassy, Goethe Institute, and Austrian Cultural Forum.

All our gratitudes goes to the artists and the curator Henk Slager, who really struggled to make BB9 happened during the pandemic.

Stay safe, be healthy and see you in Bucharest in 2022.