Über Jahre hat Stefan Rohner Verbrauchsmaterial aus Kunststoff gesammelt, fasziniert von der Beschaffenheit von Material und Form. Entstanden ist ein überdimensioniertes und molekülartiges Gebilde, das im Plastikzeitalter an die Problematik treibender Abfallpartikel auf den Weltozeanen gemahnt. Die Arbeit Seeplastik zitiert mit Humor und Leichtigkeit eine künstliche (Sirenen-)Insel. Wie ein hell leuchtender Engel breitet in Seeplastik ein schwebender Plastikkörper seine Flügel über die Errungenschaften aus organischem Polymer – ein Stoff, der im Alltag fast nicht mehr wegzudenken ist. Nadia Veronese

Li Xiaofei was born in the Chinese city of Hunan in 1973. He lives in Shanghai and New York. He graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Li has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including the Iaspis International Residency Grant, Stockholm, Sweden (2013) and The Sovereign Foundation Fellowship of the Asian Cultural Council, New York, USA (2011). Li initiated Assembly Line in 2010, an ongoing project that records industrialised social change in, not only China, but as it occurs internationally. Through this documentary process, Li explores what lies beyond the orderliness of the assembly line, the capitalist factory, consumer society, social progress and social mores—the reality of the people living in a highly systematic and institutionalized environment.

Li's work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including: Seven Necessities—An Assembly Line Project by Li Xiaofei, OCAT Xi’An, China (2017); 5. Mediations Biennale Poznań, Poland (2016); 2013 and 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (2013, 2017) “OVERTIME: THE ART OF WORK”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A (2015); Barents Spektakel 2015”,Kirkenes, Norway (2015); The 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014); The 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014); 60th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2014); “Descriptive Acts”, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2012); “Melancholy in Progress, 2012 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition (2012).

The collection was clandestinely downloaded after this unexpected encounter while walking in the forest. The collection delivers a series of intimate images of forest life by day and night across the spectrum of autumn, winter, and spring, where wildlife such as deer, raccoon, rabbit, bobcat, and fox wander freely. The images cross from being literal and practical studies for hunting, as the images are accompanied by accurate time signatures and phases of the moon, to evoking scenes which call to mind signs and symbols of the occult, visually drawing on the presence of omens and visions of animal mythologies.

The main exhibition space of Taste of Tea is two passenger trains standing at platform at the famous Istanbul Haydarpasa Terminal, in Kadikoy. Another railway station falls into the Nine Dragon Heads route of research and activity -Istanbul Sirkeci Terminal, the eastern terminus of the Orient Express, the world famous long- distance passenger train from Paris to Istanbul, connecting Europe with Asia.

The majority of organizational functions within Taste of Tea are implemented directly by Nine Dragon Heads with directorial overview and coordination provided by the project’s artistic director and founder of Nine Dragon Heads Park, Byoung Uk. Taste of Tea is co-curated by Magda Guruli, independent curator from Tbilisi, Georgia and Istanbul based artist Denizhan Özer.

Nine Dragon Heads Artists: Ali Bramwell (NZ), Alois Schild (AT), Antti Tenetz (NL), Asli Ozok (TR), Bedri Baykam (TR), Christophe Doucet (FR), Daniela de Maddalena (CH), Denizhan Özer (TR), Enrique Muñoz García (RCH/CH), Eun Su Lim (KR) Gabriel Edward Adams (USA/NZ), Gordana Andjelic Galic (B&H), Harold de Bree (NL), Iliko Zautashvili (GE), IMPLUSE (KR), Jessy Theo Rahman (NL), Kazunori Kitazawa (JP), Kelly Sharp (AU), Kim Jae Nam (KR), Kim Jai Kwan (KR), Lee Lee Nam (KR), Light House (KR), Pang Hyo Sung (KR), Serdal Kesgin (TR), Seren Ceren Asyali (TR), Shin Yong Gu (KR), Sim Jea Bun (KR), Suh Yoon Hee (KR), Susanne Muller (CH),Yoo Joung Hye (KR).

Haydarpaşa Train Station
Haydarpaşa Gar Sk. Kadıköy, İstanbul

In cooperation with Biel based institutions such as the Stadttheater (Municipal theater), the HKB (Bern University of the Arts), Spectacles Français (French theater), the Gewölbe Galerie, "Le Singe" nightclub, Café Littéraire, the town church, and other various shops and restaurants, we put together a varied culinary and cultural program, for both young and old, inspiring a collective jaunt to Biel's old town on October 22nd, 2016.

DEUTSCH

Das Fragefestival in der Bieler Altstadt bringt die grossen Fragen des Lebens auf die Strassen. Während 12 Stunden bietet die «Nacht der 1000 Fragen» eine Plattform, um sich Gedanken zu machen, um sich auszutauschen, um zuzuhören und um neugierig zu sein.

In Zusammenarbeit mit in Biel angesiedelten Institutionen wie dem Stadttheater, der HKB, den Spectacles Français, der Gewölbegalerie, dem Club le Singe, dem Café Littéraire, der Stadtkirche und verschiedenen Läden und Restaurants stellen wir ein abwechslungsreiches kulturell-kulinarisches Programm auf die Beine, das Gross und Klein animiert, am 22. Oktober 2016 in die Bieler Altstadt zu pilgern.

In this video performance, the artist takes us with her camera up and under the water, which flows through the old town of Biel/Bienne. In several works by susanne muller, water is a central and autobiographical issue.

The photographers participating in this exhibition are: Claire Lawrie, James Morgan, Sean Metelerkamp, Anne Barlinckhoff, Sophie Gammand, Pablo Maestres, Delphine Blast, Nicole de Khors, Joshua Haunschild, Ebony Finck, Jiayi Liu, Ben Millar Cole, Aleksei Kazantsev, Jakub Pasierkiewicz, Francesco Merlini, Keisuke Otobe, Ottavia Poli, Andrea Hamilton, Zora J Murff, Maciej Staszkiewicz, Anton Caro, Annelie Vandendael, Suzanne Engelberg, Benjamin Hampson, Gabriele Rossi, David Severn, Christoph Soeder, Melanie Jüngling, Zhao Qian, Pau Buscató, Lisa Shalom, Emmanuelle Andrianjafy, Florian Grosse, Ali Kate Cherkis, Sirasit Praneenij, Cydney Holm, Hana Knizova, Hailey Ford, Nelum Francesca Caramini, Mary Kang, Aaron Turner, Rodrigo di Sciascio, Caron Che, Lindsay Keys, Regis Golay, Lauren Damaskinos, Allyson Pinon, Thomas Morel-Fort, Shari Yantra Maracci, Andrea Harnick Tuchman, Emily Grunfeld, Adrien Leavitt, Txomin Txueka, Benjamin Perry, Maria Hibou, Aisha Palmitessa, Michelle Bours, Monika Marion, Shirren Lim, Marianne Ingelby, Simon Aprile, Andy Melendez, Robin Butter, Tahir Ün, Michael Anaya, Francesca Remorini, Michelle Bruzzese, Iris Hassid Segal, Diana Duplakova, Marta Corada, ElementWo, Valeria Scrilatti, Tariq Zaidi, Alessio Zemoz, Joëlle de Vries, Krzysztof Szczurek, Alex Wong, Miisha Ayana Nash, Alice Mann, Andrea Eichenberger, Alice de Kruijs, Nicole Moserle, Celine Meunier, Emanuele Camerini, Giorgio Cecca, Guillaume Tomasi, Isabella Stähl, Julia de Cooker, Katie Chasteen, Kyler Zeleny, Justine Tjallinks, Leslie Hall Brown, Kentaro Mori, Nicola Jayne Maskrey, Oliver Remera, Olympe Tits, Poem Baker and Tereza Cervenova.

Nine Dragon Heads is an interdisciplinary platform where artists from across the 5 continents work in locations that may be environmentally, economically or politically troubled, following important cultural, historical and geopolitical routes. Initiated in South Korea in 1995 in response to the destruction of an important historical site, Nine Dragon Heads has evolved to address varying crises and transitory situations in localized and situation-specific ways. "Jump into the Unknown” is organized in collaboration with the Venice based Nuova Icona – “associazione culturale per le arti”, a non-profit cultural association, founded in Venice in 1993, and dedicated to the support and promotion of contemporary visual arts. The project is commissioned by Magda Guruli (Georgia), Vittorio Urbani (Italy) and Kim Jae Kwan (S.Korea). The artistic director of "Jump into the Unknown” is Park Byoung Uk, an initiator, producer and artist based in South Korea. He is the founder and creative force behind Nine Dragon Heads.

"Nine Dragon Heads” Artists: Ali Bramwell (NZ), Alois Schild (AT), Bedri Baykam (TR), Channa Boon (NL), Charlotte Parallel (NZ), Choi, Ik Gyu (KR), Christophe Doucet (FR), Denizhan Özer (TR), Diek Grobler (ZA), Enrique Muñoz García (RCH/CH), Erika Batdorf (CA), Gabriel Edward Adams (USA), Goo, Sung Kyun (KR), Gordana Andjelic Galic (BA), Iliko Zautashvili (GE), Jusuf Hadžifejzović (BA), Kazunori Kitazawa (JP), Kim, Dong Young (KR), Lim, Hyun Lak (KR), Phil Dadson (NZ), Seo, Bak Ei (KR), Sim, Jea Bun (KR), Song, Dae Seop (KR), Suh, Yoon Hee (KR), Susanne Muller (CH), Yoo, Joung Hye (KR), Yoola, Shin (KR). Aleksandra Janik & Magdalena Hlawacz (PL), Anna-Lea Kopperi & Heini Nieminen (FI). Harold de Bree (NL) & Mike Watson (IT), Yoko Kajio & Jason Hawkes (AU), Quartair Group (NL) - Geeske Harting, Jessy Theo Rahman, Pietertje van Splunter, Thom Vink."

The documentary research was originally made for the project K-Objekt by Enrique Muñoz García. K-Objekt (Kantonale Objekt) are buildings worth of protection and preservation. Old photos, drawings, architectural plans and postcards were then collected for the ancient building overlooking the square.
Juraplatz was once the center of the city Biel/Bienne, this explains the amount of historical documents still available.

The experience and understanding of ones self awareness and of the opposition are done through reflections, overlaying and duplication to lead to an existential path.

Peter Začek - born 1962 in Vienna and lives and works in Biel / CH. Apprenticeship as a draftsman. Independent artist ever since. Performances and exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad.

Jörg Köppl - born 1964 in Baden, lives and works in Zurich / CH. Studied Fine Arts at ZHdK Zurich. Independent artist since 1989. Performances and exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad.

The judging panel for the year was composed of 12 globally acclaimed photographers who've won numerous awards such as Hasselblad Masters, WPO, PDN, American Photo and IPA. This exhibition showcases their 24 winning images alongside a selection of hand-picked honorary mentions.

The photographers participating in this exhibition are: Vici Watkins, Giovanna del Sarto, Brenda Vaiani, Katja Kremenic, Mitran Kaul, Miska Draskoczy, Aziza Vasco, Judith Hornbogen, Raki Nikahetiya, Lisa Allen, Kristina Petrosiute, Victoria Trevino, Bruna Valenca, BriAnne Wills, Anna Sowul, Giulia Bersani, Michael Dietrich, Rafael Hernandez, Femke Boermans, Neville Jones, Roza Vulf, Adam Fish, Yovcho Gorchev, Judy Mauer, Sergio Carbajo, Jeff Blucher, Danielle Falknor, Sven Loach, Sandro Tedde, Christina Venedict, Kuo Yun Chien, Yuri Van Geenen, Cesar Rodriguez, Robb Klassen, David Brunetti, Cecilie Smith Oedegaard, Rob Blews, Felicia Simion, Luigi Avantaggiato, Anthony Cassell, Luisa Carcavale, David Steinboim, Elena Fortunati, Dipanjan Mitra, Ariana Gomez, Emma McEvoy, Kris Arzadun, Jeff Seltzer, Shirren Lim, AnnaLaura Masciave, Anna di Prospero, Daniel Van Moll, Harry Benhaiem, Marco Enia and Jonathan Pozniak.

Two filmmakers attempt to discover the soul of the matter “for the Night”. The film represents a metaphor for the human body: man is a house, the house is human, an interior. The labyrinth of thoughts becomes a place full of transmuting rooms, never-ending stairways and doors opening by themselves onto mysterious little stages.

Timo Arnall`s short film gives us a glimpse of how robots and machines see the world and create meaning from their limited perspectives. Computer vision is sensitive to qualities in moving images that may be very different from what human vision perceives. These images give us a glimpse of how algorithms are beginning to make some tiny, fractional sense out of our world.
Timo Arnall (1976 London, United Kingdom) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. A designer concerned with near-future technology and culture, Timo Arnall works with digital products, services and visualisations, predominantly through directing and making films. He is a research fellow at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design and creative director at BERG in London.

In this work Joan Fontcuberta has deliberately "mis-constructed" model planes with all the original parts, transforming them into new "poetic space objects“. As in other works by Joan Fontcuberta, historical and political facts are questioned and manipulated through imagination, artifice and humor.

Joan Fontcuberta was born in 1955 in Barcelona, where he continues to live and work. He has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. His work is found in numerous institutions, including the New York Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

In this work, Enrique Muñoz García explores an intimate moment in the daily lives of each and every person: the time spent frenetically zapping between television channels. To do this, he filmed himself along with a number of acquaintances living abroad, from Switzerland to Chile and Spain. The intimacy of the sequences is heightened by virtue of the protagonists being naked, allowing theirskin to reflect the colours emitted by the screen. Out of aestheticism and a desire for authenticity, the photographer ruled out the possibility of enhancing the resolution of the sequences. Indeed, the artist’s primary concern is to reveal the magic in reality. According to Enrique Muñoz García, “Zapping” is to be understood as a portrait of a single person, depicted through a multiplicity of individuals. Emily Fayet

The Symposium was characterised by two major parameters. First, it took place in a dynamic town of about 50 000 inhabitants (which is for small Switzerland quite a lot) and second in direct contact with the lake of Biel/Bienne, the 5000 year old history of settlement in the area and its huge vineyards along the not very high chain of mountains called Jura.
An urban environment allowed the Symposium to have lively contact with the population, the local art scene and art students. The traditional focus of the Nine Dragon Heads Symposia on performance allowed many cultural exchanges beyond words.

The event began already on the first evening with a Vernissage at Art-Etage, where the 25 artists showed small works that introduced them to the Symposium community. The Mayor of Biel/Bienne welcomed the Nine Dragon Heads from all 5 continents and Park Byoung Uk expressed his gratitude of being invited to Switzerland. Background information and three performances combined the production of visual works and moving artistic action. Annelise Zwez

Nine Dragon Heads Artists: Ali Bramwell(NZ), Alois Schild(A), Adriano Gon(I), Bruce Allan(GB), Bernhard Gerber(CH), Christoph Doucet(F), Daniela de Maddalena(CH), Diek Grobler(RSA), Enrique Muñoz García(CL), Gabriel Adams(NZ/USA), Gordana Andjelic Galic(BIH), Harold de Bree(NL), illiko Zautashvili(GEO), Jessy Rahman(SUR), Magda Guruli(GEO), Max Bühlman(CH), Inbok Trobos(A/ROK), Pang Hyo-Sung(ROK), Paul Donker Duyvis(NL), Philip Dadson(NZ), Park Byoung Uk(ROK), susanne muller(CH), Ursula Stalder(CH), Yoo Joung Hye(ROK), Yoko Kajio(AU/JP), Marinda du Toit(RSA).

Yet time has a disconcerting and paradoxical nature, for in photography, in theory, nothing should move or be fluid. Thus, unsurprisingly, time has become the subject of a number of exhibitions in recent years, including Breathless! Photography and Time in London in 1999 and in 2010 Entretiempos at PHotoEspaña and the Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie in Germany under the title "Jetzt – die erzählte Zeit". In an age when the qualities of mobility, immediacy and simultaneity have come to define a significant portion of our lifestyles, photography is no longer necessarily bound to the here and now. Photographic works, often hybrid in form, are creating new possibilities and lexicons in order to constitute authentic expressions of contemporaneousness.

Schwarzes Licht
Large leaves of immaculate whiteness are suspended on white walls. Neons emitting a black lightare buzzing on the roof. As the hours pass and the darkness intensifies, the light from the tubes begins to dominate and to gradually reveal serigraphs. Portraits of drug addicts begin to appearopposite the solanaceous plants. The images in "Schwarzes Licht" fluctuate between presence and absence. The cycle of appearanceand disappearance varies according to the nature and intensity of the light source. The spectator's visual experience is therefore subject to time, both its duration and in a meteorological sense.While visible at night, these human and vegetal bodies vanish in the daylight. This inversion of visibility/invisibility and day/night refers directly to the opposition of life/death. These latent imagesreveal themselves to those patient enough to wait for them – or they surprise those who aren't expecting to see them. In her artistic approach, Nicole Hametner seeks to reveal the disturbing natureof her subjects. It is no surprise that night holds a prominent place in her work, as a subject and a setting ("L'Heure bleue", "Le Sapin") and as an essential condition ("Schwarzes Licht"). Nicole Hametner does not hide her interest in romanticism and psychoanalysis. When she speaks of "Schwarzes Licht", she evokes Freud and Greek mythology. Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) refers directly to the figure of Atropos. The three Moirae – or Fates – spin (Clotho), measure (Lachesis) and cut (Atropos) the thread of life. In psychoanalysis, the long thread of the life force is structuredby a series of situations produced by ruptures. In the manner of Atropos, the nature of the light source structures the cycle of appearance/disappearance, life/death of the images in "Schwarzes Licht".

Procedure — X and Chen Yongwei give each other lessons in Swiss German and Chinese.
The camera records only the points of light (bulbs) attached to the bodies and the sound.

Rainer Ganahl modified the 1950's song "Tu voi far l' Americano" into "Tu voi far propio Cinese". The artist considers and questions the actual economic and political strategies in China. Since 1992, several Ganahl works have been inspired by the anticolonial theories of Edward Said. Ganahl uses foreign language learning as an instrument as an artistic gesture and thus analyses the political and economic world occurrences.

Rainer Ganahl was born in 1967 in Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria. He lives and works since 1990 in New York, USA. He studied Philosophy and History at the Innsbruck University. He studied with Peter Weibel in the University of Applied Art, in Viena, and with Nam June Paik in the Art Academy of Dusseldorf. In 1990 joined the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Ingrid Wildi Merino.

Presented with the kind support of the city of Biel / Bienne

Ingrid Wildi Merino gives us an invitation to freely think of Dislocation, it causes and effects, where people from different nationalities and from different social backgrounds find and connect through common answers about how we live in this world.

The curator Ingrid Wildi Merino proposes the following text as a thought about Dislocation by Benoit Goetz, a way of getting close to the problems of a particular architectonic space as Juraplatz and, at the same time combine this concept of Goetz with the idea of how we live in this world, but our inner human world always depending on the external space: Political and Architectural.

La dislocation est l'évènement qui affecte l'espace contemporain. Mais on peut dire tout aussi bien que cet évènement était contenu de manière immémoriale dans l'espace lui-même qui est, par définition, une puissance d'écartement et de dispersion. Les mythologies du Lieu, les représentations du Monde empêchaient toutefois cet évènement d'éclater au grand jour.

Cette survenue de la dislocation n'a rien, en soi, de catastrophique. Elle signifie simplement que les espaces désormais flottent librement, détachés, insuperposables à quelque image du monde que ce soit, désamarrés de tout système cosmique, de toute croix orientante. Ni lieux, ni non-lieux, des espaces naissent et meurent au travers de processus complexes : construction, architectures, espace familier, espace social, espace public, espace culturel, espace du travail, devenirs qui emportent la citadinité, gestes et attitudes d'habitants et de passagers. La description de ces espaces relève donc à la fois d'une poétique de l'architecture du pense et d'une reprise de la question concernant le sens de l'habitation du monde.
Benoît Goetz, « La Dislocation, Architecture et Philosophie. »

In “BIG POOL”, there is devastation. A big silent pool that converges and goes around the Chilean sea. A hotel-city, a model for national and international tourism. The biggest pool of the world made by the growing economic development, just like in many artificial cities, currently converted into ghost cities around the world, where, due to the desire of creating big scale projects, these become grotesque. Big Pool articulates how contemporary landscape is negotiated in our world. Enrique Muñoz García

K-Objekts (Stands for cantonal objects) are works that are considered worthy of protection and preservation. Before any restoration is permitted, there is an intensive preliminary process of analysis before which the required permission is granted to restore.

The work on the landmarked house on the Juraplatz lasted from May to September 2010. The photos were taken at the construction site on the Juraplatz, in the cantonal historic preservation warehouse, and in the Jura garage in Biel.

Antique photos and postcards compliment the work. They reveal various perspectives of Biel's old town throughout different epochs. In addition, Molari and Wick Architekten in Biel, who are responsible for the restoration, have made both old and new architectural plans available for viewing.

Enrique Muñoz García designed "K-Objekt" specifically for on-site interaction: For the slideshow, he chose the former kiosk at the Juraplatz bus stop as an original art space, since it is located directly opposite the documented building. In this way, the viewer has the opportunity to make a direct comparison from the present, to the building of the past - an optimal configuration. In the staircase of the building on Untergasse 47 (K-object), the artist presents a total of 90 of his photos of the restoration project.

DEUTSCH

K-Objekt ist ein Fotoprojekt über die Sanierung des Gebäudes der ehemaligen Pharmacie du Jura und der heutigen Caritas am Bieler Juraplatz.

K-Objekte (Kantonale Objekte) sind schützens- und erhaltenswerte Objekte. Sie dürfen nicht ohne intensive Vor- abklärungen und die entsprechende Bewilligung renoviert oder saniert werden.
Die Arbeiten am denkmalgeschützten Haus am Juraplatz dauerten von Mai bis September 2010. Die Fotos sind entstanden auf der Baustelle am Juraplatz, im Objektlager des kantonalen Denkmalschutzes und in der Jura- Garage in Biel enstanden.

Bei diesem Projekt stehen die Bauarbeiter im Hintergrund. Auch wenn sie eine wichtige Rolle übernehmen, sind alle auf eine gewisse Weise versteckt. Wichtiger war bei dieser Arbeit der ganze Prozess der Sanierung sowie die Beleuchtung des Kontrasts zwischen Alt und Neu — Protagonist ist hier das Gebäude. Antike Postkarten aus der Sammlung von Françis Meyer ergänzen die Arbeit. Sie zeigen diesen Winkel der Bieler Altstadt in verschiedenen Epochen. Weiter kommen alte und neue Architekturpläne dazu, die das für die Sanierung zuständige Architekturbüro Molari und Wick Architekten in Biel zur Verfügung gestellt hat.

Enrique Muñoz García hat die Ausstellung "K-Objekt" vor Ort konzipiert: Für die Diashow hat er den ehemaligen Kiosk bei der Bushaltestelle Juraplatz als originellen Kunstraum ausgewählt, da dieser sich genau gegenüber des dokumentierten Gebäudes befindet. So konnte der Betrachter immer den Direktvergleich Früher-Heute machen. Auf diese Art hat die Ausstellung optimal funktioniert. Im Treppenhaus des Gebäudes an der Untergasse 47 (K-Objekt) hat der Künstler zudem 90 seiner Fotos von der Restaurierung gezeigt.