When the Algerian-French artist Kader Attia was invited to curate the 12th Berlin Biennale, which opened last weekend in six venues in the German capital, he kept asking himself, Why is there another exhibition?
Recalling his meticulous existential deliberations in an interview with the press last Thursday, he said he didn’t want to pretend that art could change the world in itself, but still felt that artists could help change certain perceptions, little and slowly.
with “It still exists!” As its title, Attia’s sprawling exhibition is dedicated to works that help us see the histories and perspectives made invisible by colonization and its aftermath. We are overwhelmed with images and information, he noted, but artwork can act as a magnifying glass that helps us slow down and think because it attracts a different kind of attention than the constant flow of social media. The artist also said, poignantly, that if humanity had built machines to speed things up, perhaps we could think of artworks as a tool to slow down.
The resulting show brings together work by 70 artists and groups from around the world, and is loaded with research-based work—laboratory archival materials, timelines and diagrams, and numerous videos. Some of the works emphasize declonal views of ecology and feminism, while others respond to issues related to the return of looted artwork.
Here’s a look at 7 notable works – nearly half of them are by artists of Vietnamese descent, a testament to the discerning eye of Đỗ Tường Linh, the Hanoi-based curator who is part of the artistic team for this edition.
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