Three Major European Biennials Present Complementary Views of Contemporary Art

Three large-scale exhibitions in Europe—documenta in Kassel, the Berlin Biennale, and the Venice Biennale—offer a complex and complementary panorama of contemporary art. The German events, funded primarily by public money, emphasize collaborative processes and social denunciation. The documenta, curated by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa, involves about 70 collectives mobilizing over 1,500 artists with a budget exceeding 42 million euros, aiming to end representation in favor of lived experience. The Berlin Biennale, led by Franco-Moroccan artist Kader Attia, focuses on denouncing social issues. In contrast, the centennial Venice Biennale, curated by Italian Cecilia Alemani, remains closer to the market, presenting more object-based production often available through powerful galleries. This edition features about 200 artists, 180 of whom are first-time participants, with a majority being women and significant representation from Black, Indigenous, and Global South figures. The Italian exhibition seeks an aesthetic of reparation for its own history, while the German shows are described as more genuinely contemporary. Each exhibition, in its own way, brings together contradictory but coexisting ways of working that constitute the current complex contemporary scene.