Under the directorship of Stephanie Rosenthal, Berlin’s Gropius Bau has increasingly moved centre stage as a forum for some of the more urgent discussions in contemporary art. This year, exhibitions (developed out of the institution’s residency programme) by Otobong Nkanga and Zheng Bo have tackled the subjects of humanity’s relationship to nature, exploitative extraction processes, structures of repair and ‘how plants practice politics’. The last was a typically innovative experiment by Rosenthal, who before Berlin had the 2016 Sydney Biennale and a curatorial role at the Hayward Gallery, London, to her name; an approach that has reestablished the century-old institution’s relevance since her arrival in 2018. Earlier this year, Rosenthal cocurated a very prescient performance programme exploring ‘rituals of care’, as part of the global project CONNECT, BTS by K-pop band and international sensation BTS; and when the pandemic came, she found innovative ways to make a solo show by Lee Mingwei, at which visitor-activation and tactility were central, COVID-19-safe.
The ArtReview Power 100 is presented by BMW Group Culture
