The sixth Berlin Biennale, has an ominous title: 'What is waiting out there'. Addressing real world crises alongside creative ones, the 'out there' that the 43 exhibiting artists reach for includes everything from the media circus around the Joseph Fritzel trial to rebel protestors taking arms against Shell Oil in the Niger Delta.
Political video dominates, though there are some standout concessions to 3D work. For example, Twenty-four-year-old Petrit Halilaj has builders erecting a replica of his family home in Kosovo while chickens run free, in Mitte's KW gallery.
Moving away from its traditional home in the east, however, most of the exhibition has been installed throughout a series of ad hoc venues in the former anarchist haunt of Kreuzberg in the West. In a dilapidated former multi-story supermarket, look out for Henrik Oleson's supremely finickety dissembling of a laptop, with each mysterious component mounted on Perspex.
Round the corner the Danish/Vietnamese artist Danh Vo has turned his apartment into a walk-in artwork, including a bathroom whose tiles bear delicate red ink drawings of flowers that grow on the border between Tibet and China.
'Sich waschender Arbeiter / Worker washing himself' by Adolph Menzel, 1872-1874.
'Resistance' by Andrey Kuzkin, 2009. The image was taken by Irina Steinberg and supplied courtesy of the artist/ Open Gallery.
'Die Geburt' by Anna Witt, 2003. Courtesy of Galerie Michael Wiesehöfer, Koln/ Cologne.
'Details 2 & 3' by Avi Mograbi, 2004. Courtesy of the artist.
'Les Manifs (Protest Marches)' by Bernard Bazile, 2009. Courtesy of the artist.
'Roll me baby' by Cameron Jamie, 2009. Courtesy of the artist, Bernier/ Eliades Gallery, Athens.
'View of the artist's balcony and Maria Ngo Thi Ha' by Danh Vo, 2008. The photo is taken by Thomas Cato, courtesy of the artist; Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Berlin; Galerie Daniel Buchholz, K#246;ln / Cologne/Berlin and BSI Art Collection
'Das Haus bleibt still' by Adrian Lohmüller, 2010. Courtesy of the artist, photography by Uwe Walter
'I can sing' by Ferhat özgür, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.
'Passage Briare' by Friedl vom Gröller, 2009. Courtesy of the artist and sixpackfilm, Vienna.
'Too many H's and Too Many A's' by Gedi Sibony, 2009. Photograph by Gil Blank courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali Gallery, New York.
'SeaSideShow' by Geroge Kuchar, 2009. Courtesy of the artist and Video Data Base, Chicago.
'Aufbau, Klub Europa' by Hans Schabus, 2010. Courtesy of the artist and Berlin Biennale
'Manipulating Media' by Henrik Olesen, 2002. Courtesy the artist; Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Köln / Cologne/Berlin
'Installation View 6th Berlin Biennale for contemporary art'. Photograph by Uwe Walter, courtesy of the artist.
'Washing' by Ion Grigorescu, 1976. Courtesy the artist and Andreiana Mihail Gallery, Bucharest.
'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith, 1976. Photo by Uwe Walter, courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin.
'KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin', 2008. Photography by Uwe Walter, courtesy of Berlin Biennale.
'Portraits und Wurst' by Marcus Geiger, 2006. Courtesy of the artist.
'Peggy' by Margaret Salmon, 2003. Courtesy of the artist and Office Baroque Gallery, Antwerp.
'Holes for eyes' by Marie Voignier and Vassilis Salphists, 2009. Courtesy of the artists.
'Passage Briare' by Marion von Osten, 2009. Courtesy of the artist and sixpackfilm, Vienna.
'Marlene Hairy or in my bathtub I am the Captain' by Marlene Haring, 2005. Courtesy of the artist.
'Untitled ' by Michael Schmidt, 1997-1999. Courtesy Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin.
'On How Things Behave' by Michael Stevenson, 2010. Courtesy of the artist and Vilma Gold, London.
'Le Telephone' by Mohamed Bourouissa, 2006. Courtesy of the artist and gallery Les Filles Du Calvaire, Paris.
'Für den Schrank' by Nilbar Güres, 2010. Courtesy of the artist.
'Echo' by Nir Evron, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.
'High Road' by Olga Chernysheva, 2007. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Volker Diehl and Foxy Productions, New York.
'Déjà-vu & Paranoia' by Pleurad Xhafa and Sokol Peci, 2009. Courtesy of the artists.
'Episode 3' by Renzo Martens, 2008. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam and Wilkinson Gallery, London.
'Beyond Guilt' by Ruti Sela and Maayan Amir, 2004. Courtesy of the artists.
'Aus der Serie marcher a l'envers' by Sebastian Stumpf, 2006. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Kleindienst, Leipzig.
'Installation View, 6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art' by Shannon Ebner, 2010. Courtesy of the artist; Wallspace, New York, and Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco.
'WePa' by Sven-Åke Johansson, 2003. Courtesy of the artist.
'The Living Currency', The Living Currency Tate Modern London 2008 Front, Prinz Gholam 'Ein Ding Mehr', 2006. Photo by Sheila Burnett, courtesy of Tate Modern.
'Echo' by Thomas Judin, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.
'UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Article 8 Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law' by Thomas Locher, 2004. Courtesy of VG Bild Kunst, Bonn, 2010.
'The places I’m looking for, my dear, are utopian places, they are boring and I don’t know how to make them real' by Petrit Halilaj, 2010. Courtesy of the artist.
'ARS NOVA E5305-B' by Vincent Vulsma, 2010. Photo by Nick Ash, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Cinzia Friedlaender, Berlin.
'A sexy bathroom is a bathroom that makes you wanna shower until your skin flakes off' by Danh Voh, 2010. Photography by Nick Ash, courtesy of the artist; Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Berlin; Galerie Daniel Buchholz and Köln / Cologne/Berlin
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