The Biennale is now underwritten by the German government through the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Federal Culture Foundation) and is the second most important contemporary arts event in the country, after documenta.
It took place in the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin-Mitte, at the Akademie der Künste in Pariser Platz and at the Postfuhramt (a former government post office) in Oranienburger Straße.
During the opening week, the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija catered a banquet for 1,000 guests in the post office gymnasium, and a three-night combination symposium and festival, Congress 3000, took place in the House of World Cultures.
[9] Works were again exhibited at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art and the postal centre in Oranienburger Straße as well as under the elevated S-Bahn at Jannowitzbrücke and the Allianz Building, known as the Treptowers.
[14][15] The Artforum reviewer pointed to the lack of new work and the extra year's delay since the second Berlin Biennale as signs of a need for better funding and referred to some of the collaborations as "strained aesthetic ententes.
"[8] The Fourth Berlin Biennale ran from 25 March to 5 June 2006, curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni, and Ali Subotnick, known collectively as the Wrong Gallery after a project they did in New York.
Titled Von Mäusen und Menschen (Of Mice and Men) and conceived of as an extended narrative or life cycle, the Fourth Berlin Biennale featured works by Mircea Cantor, Bruce Nauman, Ján Mančuška, and Thomas Schütte, among others.
[29][30] During the first week of the exhibition, La monnaie vivante / The Living Currency / Die lebende Münze was presented by the Hebbel am Ufer theatre and the Centre d’art contemporain de Brétigny, with choreography by Pierre Bal-Blanc.
James Farago, of The Guardian, wrote a scathing review, describing the art event as "an ultra-slick, ultra-sarcastic biennial, replete with ads, avatars, custom security guard uniforms, a manic social media presence disposed to hashtags like #BiennaleGlam, and a woman lip syncing to Trap Queen".
Other critics lauded the Biennale; in the September 2016 Issue of Artforum, British artist Hannah Black wrote that “…They [DIS] have been greeted, just like the modernist avant-gardes were in their time, with accusations of bad politics and even worse taste.
In my view, it catered to a young, white, middle-class audience, but now it strikes me as more realistic than what we are seeing today: an outsourcing to the (post-)colonial other of the political, guilt, spiritual desire and collectivity that plague the Western-Northern self.
"[50] The 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art took place from 9 June to 9 September 2018, and was curated by Gabi Ngcobo and her team of Nomaduma Rosa Masilela, Serubiri Moses, Thiago de Paula Souza and Yvette Mutumba.
[51] From 9 June to 9 September 2018, it presented works by: Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Ana Mendieta, Basir Mahmood, Belkis Ayón, Cinthia Marcelle, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Elsa M’bala, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Fabiana Faleiros, Firelei Báez, Gabisile Nkosi, Grada Kilomba, Heba Y. Amin, Herman Mbamba, Joanna Piotrowska, Johanna Unzueta, Julia Phillips, Keleketla!
Library, Las Nietas de Nonó, Liz Johnson Artur, Lorena Gutiérrez Camejo, Lubaina Himid, Luke Willis Thompson, Lydia Hamann & Kaj Osteroth, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Mario Pfeifer, Mildred Thompson, Mimi Cherono Ng'ok, Minia Biabiany, Moshekwa Langa, Natasha A. Kelly, Okwui Okpokwasili, Oscar Murillo, Özlem Altın, Patricia Belli, Portia Zvavahera, Sam Samiee, Sara Haq, Simone Leigh, Sinethemba Twalo and Jabu Arnell, Sondra Perry, Tessa Mars, Thierry Oussou, Tony Cokes, Tony Cruz Pabón and Zuleikha Chaudhari.