The show offers a broad overview of anti-colonial artistic practice.

The 12th Berlin Biennale has opened its doors. Artist-curator Kader Attia has given the event the title “Still Present,” promising that his selection of 82 artists offers an overview of “more than two decades of de-colonial engagement.”

The resulting show is particularly heavy on art that serves as illustrated lecture or data dump, with an emphasis on “forensic aesthetics.” Early reviews have called it “relentlessly grim,” which may be true—though, as with Attia’s artistic practice, journalistic critiques of injustice are leavened by moments of poetry.

The show spans traditional marquee art venues like the KW Institute for Contemporary Art and the Hamburger Bahnhof, but also has works into the Stasi Museum, a research and memorial center about the East German secret police, and elsewhere. Below, see works featured in “Still Present.”

By Ben Davis, June 14, 2022.


Film still: Clément Cogitore: „The amorous Indies“, 2017, photo by Ben Davis.