Today was the first day of the press preview for the latest installment of the Berlin Biennial, curated by Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic. I generally make it a rule to see a show at least twice before I review it, but first impressions can also be good a gauge of things, so before I start going into the high points and low points, I just thought I’d hazard the warning that I’m planning on going back a few more times, so the opinions offered below may change over time.

As far as I understand it, the curators’ concept is to divide the exhibition into two segments – a day program and a night program. The former – situated at KunstWerke, the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Schinkel Pavilion, and Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum – features more or less a static exhibition of works (with the exception of the Schinkel Pavilion, which will be the site of revolving exhibitions curated by selected artists), while the night program will consist of a schedule of lectures, readings, screenings, and performances. Based on what I saw today, I have to say that I’m looking forward to the night program – it seems that this is where the real curatorial energy has been invested.

If pressed to sum up my impression of the work in the KunstWerke and the Neue Nationalgalerie: shabby. Albeit, it’s a very Berlin type of shab that would easily be at home in many of Mitte’s fashion boutiques. There are no well-known artists at all in the exhibition; much of the work looks very studenty. Heavy on the installation side, with hardly any painting, and quite a few videos thrown in for good measure.

One of the few pieces that really stand out is a video by Zhao Liang, City Scene. The artist wanders through Beijing at night with a video camera in hand, filming whatever natural “scenes” he happens to stumble upon – fist fights outside of bars, shady incidents with men forcing women into cars, a punk rock club…. At 23 minutes, the video is powerful, disturbing, and poetic – it could have gone on for much longer. You can’t say that about much video art these days.

To be continued…