Berlin Biennale 9: shiny, but not deep
Sculptural element ‘L'Avalee des avales (The Swallower Swallowed) Iguana/Sloth’ of Jon Rafman’s 'View of Parizer Platz’ (2016)
I was going to Berlin with some degree of anticipation to see the strong statement: philosophies in total visuality are irrelevant. But DIS, curatorial collective/fashion online magazine team went half-way there: being not radical enough to emphasise the nakedness of the king and at the same time providing seemingly unnecessary layer of pseudo-intellectualism. It appears to breath the same cold air as 'connecting with your inner self’ iPhone covers, produced in South Asian sweatshops in 'limited edition’ royal navy blue colour to be sold in Colette at Parisian Rue St Honore.
While society of spectacle is in urgent need of strong slap on the face amidst growing apathy and absenteeism, the Biennial doesn’t go further than demonstrate or, at its strongest moments, proclaim what we have been seeing for more than decade: continuous mass delusion and enchantment with carpet bombardment of shiny, glossy and hyperreal imagery. I had hard time to distinguish difference between 'visual things’ shown at the Biennale from my Instagram feed.
Another unrealised expectation: the issue of digital identification and the gap between 'digital me’ and 'empirical me’ haven’t been addressed critically. Rather, like in Jon Rafman installation on the terrace of Akademie der Kunste, it was spectacularly demonstrated. Attention wasn’t paid as well to reflecting on the possible consequences of further evolvement of identity politics, actualisation of possible space for thinking and placing you in position of environmental discomfort, where the expected magic of immersing into the world of contemporary art could actually happen. Criticism of reality in this context is not criticism per se: it falls in the trap of being part of ideologised environment while trying to appear outside of it.
Camille Henrot, installation view of 'Office of Unreplied Animals’, 2016
Biennale, which I expected to be a slap on the face of the hierarchies of contemporary (f)art world, in fact tried to sit on several chairs at the same time. 'Fuck you we are not even curators’ attitude doesn’t go far enough when those pronouncing rock-and-roll spirited mantras words are entering the very same mode of talking with the audience. Philosophic inquiry seems like it was based on purchased in the Urban Outfitters tome of 'All Philosophy in Cat Pictures’.
Absence of the theme or any point is felt in the KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Akademie der Kunst the most. Adrian Piper familiar critical reflections on 'everything being taken away’ are shown next to poorly produced AirBnB-lifestyle devoted installation. Rather neutral in their appeal (and therefore not very much provoking in any sense) but very Instagram-friendly Anna Uddenberg hommages to self-obsession and packable light travel lifestyle talk to less than 1% of bubble-inhabiting jet-set golden youth. Hito Steyerl video installation which is shedding the light and dissecting Saddam Hussein project of building modern tower of Babel in Akademie der Kunste fall somehow out of the general LOLism and emojis, but because of it’s outstanding quality and depth seems to be out of place.
What appears to be strategic, however, is the choice of the locations for the exhibition. The KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin European School of Management, The Feuerle Collection and touristic Blue Boat ensemble suggest a proper dialogue about overarching penetration by the fashionable 'contemporary art’ into anything and everything - in many cases to hide emptiness, ridicule and unjustified hierarchies. The Fuerle Collection appears to be the most coherent in terms of addressing the subject of advancing 'pastichisation’ in contemporaneity. The former military bunker as the space of escapism and complete abandonment is the only platform that is available for critical reflection and thinking in today’s environment of over-arching totality.
All in all, Berlin Biennale succeeds to demonstrate how 'Present’ appears like, just like the spread of fashion magazine. However, for instance, 'Martha Rosler reads Vogue’ (1982) is standalone the work and not only encompasses what the Biennale should have, but suggests much more. Visiting sites feels like browsing through Instagram or Facebook feed - rather an activity to 'kill the time’ in the public transport commute or queue in supermarket to the cashier, than a space to formulate actual inquiries about the problematics within modern way of living.