Since its inception in 1996, the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art has been dedicated to providing a platform for pioneering curatorial experiments. Curators are given full freedom to build an academic discourse system independent of the art market and collection system. The theme of the 12th Berlin Biennale, which just opened this summer, is "Still Present!", which uses a striking exclamation point to warn the world that the wounds caused by colonialism have never been truly repaired, and its list of crimes is still alive. Growth, it still exists in the present.

Colonialism has never gone out of style; it has spawned new variants that permeate everyday life. The Empire quietly obscures or even erases the suffering of colonization from history, leaving people into the allure of hands-free old hatred. The relentless expansion and exploitation of capital continues. Data mining and algorithmic governance serve new forms of colonization. They insatiably suppress people’s thinking space and deprive people of memory. The lead curator, Kader Attia, is a French-Algerian artist who ran the alternative space La Colonie in Paris. In this public space, which resembles both a bar and an indoor plaza, various types of activities such as exhibitions, screenings, forums, etc. take place frequently. The public eye is focused on communities and their cultures that have been silenced and marginalized by colonial discourse. This exhibition continues the anti-colonial action strategy that Attia has adhered to for more than 20 years. Intangible histories and ethnicities emerge in the artistic practice, documentation, radical publications and scholarly debates that the exhibition convenes. Attia leads the entire curatorial team to work on the blind spots of Western modernity, subdividing four dimensions of reflection: cultural heritage return, ecological decolonization, non-Western feminism, and the connection between fascism and colonialism.

The Biennale's preference for archives reflects its critical, empirical orientation. Sri Lankan artist Deneth Piumakshi Veda Arachchige, based in France and Switzerland, borrows the museum's archives in 136 Years Ago & Now Routines are set up to counter the underlying discourse hegemony behind the display behavior. Arachchige researched photographs of Sri Lanka's aborigines taken at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the collections of several European museums. The filming was done by an expedition sent by the Empire to the area at that time. Under the guise of science, they often acted as the advance team of colonization. These image archives are riddled with holes. The misreading and disdain of the colonists prompted the artist to return to his hometown, to return to the real environment where the picture belongs to take a second shot and correct the fallacy. Artist Nil Yalter, also a keen social critic, stepped out of the lifeless White Cube and took to the streets with a hybrid installation of photo collages and videos. "What does exile mean?" Yalter threw the question at people living in comfort zones. Passersby listened to the videos of women and their family members from Portugal and Turkey. The short but powerful answer "EXILE IS A HARD JOB" is painted on the poster canvas in bright red spray paint.

Urban space is undoubtedly the "main battlefield" for artists to fight against colonization. Stockholm-based artist duo DAAR subverts the blueprints imposed on the colonies by replicating urban and rural planning miniatures. Coincidentally, Moses März's sensitivity to cities is reflected in his own maps. His "Community" takes Berlin and its surrounding areas, where the exhibition takes place, as the object of observation, breaking down the barriers of ethnic groups and reshaping the connection between the present and history. This year's Biennale is ambitiously "occupying" five different venues in the city of Berlin. Among them, the Berlin Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) and the Hamburger Bahnhof (Hamburger Bahnhof) both witnessed the division of Berlin after World War II and the reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Art Factory (Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art) was established during the adjustment, turbulent period of the early unification. The other two exhibition venues have clearer political and historical references: the Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City is located adjacent to the conference site where European powers carved up Africa and demarcated their spheres of influence in the late 19th century. Other works are housed in the Stasi Headquarters in East Berlin, which was once the intelligence surveillance and secret police agency of the GDR. Today, it has been transformed into a museum of democracy and civic education.

The Dong Xuan Center, which shares the Stasi headquarters in Lichtenberg, eastern Berlin, is an Asian restaurant market and commodity distribution center mainly serving the local Vietnamese community. This special settlement made the chief curator Attia aware of the existence of Vietnamese immigrants who had been ignored by the Berlin art scene in the past. Most of them came here to study, work and settle down with the immigration wave in the second half of the last century, and they have become a considerable proportion of the city's residents. Among the curatorial team, Đỗ Tường Linh, who is active in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed her rational analysis and judgment on contemporary art in her cultural circle to the exhibition. Therefore, the audience will encounter the creations of many Vietnamese or Vietnamese artists in this biennale. The topics are mostly related to the history of the French period, the Vietnam War, religious beliefs, the situation of separation, clan culture and other related topics. The exhibition does not deliberately pursue the exoticism under the colonial gaze, and the complex nature of individual Vietnamese creative experiences and global perspectives are respected and revealed. Đào Châu Hải, who returned from studying in the Soviet Union in 1979, is an important local sculptor since Vietnam launched the "reform and opening up" in 1986. He was deeply influenced by the aesthetics of formalism. He carefully designed, cut and formed huge dark steel plates, and arranged them at equal distances perpendicular to the ground to form the shape of ocean waves. The sharp edges and facets convey a sense of danger and violence, and the artist satirizes the endless struggle for maritime rights by military forces.

In the curatorial theme discussion, Attia sharply asked: "In today's over-production of culture, what is the point of having one more large-scale exhibition?" Indeed, post-colonialism and decolonization are commonplace in the art world. This year's Berlin Biennale brings out the concept of "restoration" in a novel way. Attia sees restoration as a model of cultural resistance, and the path to restoration is art. Static art as a noun draws attention and provokes empathy; art as a verb, in motion, triggers ongoing dialogue, urging people to get out there and take practical action right now. "Repair the wounds on the physical and physical level first, and then repair the spiritual wounds of the individual and society" is the order of Attia. At first glance, the whole chain of ideas for restoration seems logical, but it may miss a really important premise. If remediation is based solely on resentment against the abuser, it will be reduced to rigid, abstract dogma—indignant emotions that can only haphazardly forge consensus. Beyond repair, the word Penance embraces the dual inseparability of repair and reconciliation, and its premise is repentance, not accusation and hatred. This does not mean that we have to reconcile with colonialism, but that we, as critics, must first repent of our pain, repent of our own limitations and inaction, seek change, and consciously assume the moral responsibility for the weaker groups in society. This kind of gentle revolution is more effective than decisive opposition and division, it is enough to heal wounds, and it is enough to fight against the indifference, greed, and increasing dehumanization of relationships that prevail in the world.

Article Source:艺术与设计

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