Zasha Colah Named Curator Of 13th Berlin Biennale

The 13th edition of the Berlin Biennale will be curated by Zasha Colah, exhibition organizers announced on Tuesday.

Colah was selected by an international selection committee which included Sebastian Cichocki, Elena Filipovic, Krist Gruijthuijsen , Omar Kholeif, Manuela Moscoso, Olaf Nicolai, and Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi.

Colah, who is a curator and writer, has explored themes of artistic expression under conditions of sustained oppression. Her 2020 doctorate addressed illegality and meta-exhibition practices in Indo-Myanmar beginning in the 1980s.

Earlier this year, she assumed the position of artistic director, with Francesca Verga, at ar/ge kunst Bolzano in Italy. She co-founded the research collaborative blackrice in 2007 and the artist and curatorial collective Clark House Initiative from 2010–22. She was previously curator of Indian Modern Art at the CSMVS Museum in Mumbai from 2009–11 and prior to that curator of public programs at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai from 2004–05.

Colah most recently curated with Marianne Zamecznik the temporary public art commission “Pedro Gómez-Egaña: Inmeridiem” for Deichmanske bibliotek at the National Public Library, Oslo (2021–22), as well as “Anawana Haloba: How to (re)pair my grandmother’s basket” and “Muna Mussie: Bologna St. 173″—both with Chiara Figone at Archvie Milano, Italy (2021). In 2017, she curated the third Pune Biennale with Luca Cerizza and, in 2018, the second Yinchuan Biennale as part of the curatorial team led by Marco Scotini.

The 13th edition of the Berlin Biennale is slated to take place in summer 2025.