Every two years, the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art brings together international artists, theoreticians, and practitioners in exhibitions and interdisciplinary formats. The 12th edition, titled Still Present! and curated by Kader Attia, takes the historical and continuing legacies of colonialism, environmental devastation, and wounded collective memories as a point of departure to imagine modes of repair, solidarity, and planetary survival.
Featuring more than 80 international artists and collectives, the exhibition unfolds across six emblematic venues in Berlin. Rather than presenting static historical artifacts, Still Present! creates dynamic constellations between archival findings, decolonial interventions, and non-Western cosmologies that challenge dominant Eurocentric narratives.
“Repair is a continuous, perpetual movement. It is not an attempt to return to a mythic pristine past, but an active engagement with the scars of history, the extraction of the planet, and algorithmic confinement.” — Kader Attia
Revisiting contested historical archives, restitution processes, and the unacknowledged psychological scars imprinted across generations by colonial violence.
Interrogating ecological catastrophes, toxic legacies, and corporate resource plundering through soil research, water memory, and indigenous botanical wisdom.
Exposing how facial recognition, biometric surveillance, and automated state control extend imperial policing tactics into the digital present.
Honoring matriarchal lineages, textile traditions, oral genealogies, and bodily defiance against authoritarian repression and racialized labor extraction.
Guided tours in multiple languages, durational performances, research symposia, film screenings, and workshops occurring across all six exhibition venues.
Over 80 international practitioners, researchers, and archival contributors participating in the 12th Berlin Biennale. Click any artist to view their exhibited work and curatorial dossier.
The 12th Berlin Biennale expands across six historic locations in Berlin. Click any diamond pin on the violet map or explore the venue cards below for opening hours, directions, and barrier-free access.
Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin
Historic founding institution of the Berlin Biennale. Features four floors of installations, courtyards, and video works by Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Omer Fast, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen.
Hours: Wed–Mon 11:00–19:00, Thu 11:00–21:00 (Tue closed)
Transit: U8 Rosenthaler Platz, S1/S2/S25 Oranienburger Straße
Invalidenstraße 50–51, 10557 Berlin
Former neoclassical railway station housing large-scale sculptures and monumental interventions by Binta Diaw, DAAR, Forensic Architecture, Prabhakar Pachpute, and Sammy Baloji.
Hours: Tue, Wed, Fri 10:00–18:00, Thu 10:00–20:00, Sat–Sun 11:00–18:00
Transit: S+U Berlin Hauptbahnhof (5 min walk)
Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
Werner Düttmann modernist complex hosting the central symposium hall, botanical archives by Uriel Orlow, and works by Tammy Nguyen, Praneet Soi, and Jihan El-Tahri.
Hours: Tue–Sun 11:00–19:00, Thu until 21:00 (Mon closed)
Transit: U9 Hansaplatz, S-Bahn Bellevue
Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Glass-fronted pavilion overlooking Brandenburg Gate. Features Nil Yalter’s pioneer feminist video installations on guest workers and Lamia Joreige’s Beirut border topographies.
Hours: Tue–Sun 11:00–19:00 (Mon closed)
Transit: S+U Brandenburger Tor
Ruschestraße 103, Haus 7 & Haus 22, 10365 Berlin
The former GDR Ministry for State Security headquarters. Houses works investigating surveillance, toxic extraction, and state panopticons by Zach Blas, Susan Schuppli, and Mathieu Pernot.
Hours: Mon–Sun 10:00–18:00
Transit: U5 Magdalenenstraße
Wilhelmstraße 92, 10117 Berlin
Dedicated urban project space adjacent to the historical site of the 1884/85 Berlin Africa Conference, presenting counter-cartographies by Moses März and Deneth Piumakshi.
Hours: Thu–Sat 14:00–19:00
Transit: U6 Kochstraße / Checkpoint Charlie
Published in conjunction with the 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, available at all venue bookstores and by international dispatch.
Complete walkthrough for all 6 venues, complete artist biographies, floorplans, and critical introductory essays by Kader Attia and Souleymane Bachir Diagne.
Interrogates decoloniality, algorithmic extraction, and environmental justice through commissioned texts and foundational philosophical reprints.
Screenprinted archival poster (70×100 cm) in iris-and-ink on uncoated paper, bundled with lifetime access to all audio guide tracks and artist soundworks.
Passes grant access across all six exhibition venues during opening hours. Free admission for visitors under 18. Thursday evening discounts available.
All six exhibition venues are wheelchair accessible with elevators, step-free entrances, and accessible restrooms. Free loan wheelchairs and walking stools are available upon arrival at KW, Hamburger Bahnhof, and Akademie der Künste.
Registered assistance dogs are warmly welcome across all exhibition spaces and courtyards.
We provide tactile models and audio-descriptive transcripts for blind and visually impaired visitors. Regular guided walkthroughs in German Sign Language (DGS) take place bi-weekly.
Guidebooks and exhibition wall texts are published in both Standard German, English, and Easy Language (Leichte Sprache).
Below is the authentic historical record screenshot of 12.berlinbiennale.de captured during the exhibition run. Notice the exact fidelity: the violet sky (#7373ff), the stepped constructivist architectural black shapes housing "12", the side menu card, and the horizontal pill navigation strip.
./assets/hero-screenshot.jpg · Refero Design Archive
Theme: Iris-and-ink broadsheet