Most of the works at the KW are highly conceptual in nature, requiring time and patience to comprehend, and their reception probably suffered from the time constraints on the opening crowds, who all seemed to suffer the inevitable art fatigue. Michael Elmgreen of the Berlin-based art duo Elmgreen & Dragset remarked, “Like most Berlin-based artists I’m so busy with meetings during these opening days that I haven't seen even a glimpse of the biennial yet. I heard a lot of superficial statements trashin' the show though so I think it might be good.” (Elmgreen’s art partner Inga Dragset wowed pre-biennial crowds, including Architecture Foundation curator Elias Redstone and seemingly half of London’s Hayward Gallery staff, with his band at the fashionable Berlin Hilton on Wednesday, April 2.)

In previous years, there has existed a slight antagonism between the biennial and the permanent art institutions of Berlin. This year the tension was at least partly buried with the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Mies van der Rohe-designed glass modernist structure southwest of Potsdamer Platz, joining the venture. Of all the biennial venues, the Neue had the most cohesive show, as artists delighted in reacting to the bright, light-filled setting. Polish-born, London-based artist Goshka Macuga drew on the work of designer Lilly Reich, van der Rohe’s long-time professional and personal partner, by installing replicas of her designs. Nairy Baghramian (from Iran, lives in Berlin) also responded to the architecture by placing two metal blocks, painted black, opposite each other — one on the inside and one on the outside of the gallery — with the building’s glass external wall running between them. Peppered with holes, the blocks allow viewers to see through to the other side when the holes line up or to have their reflections mirrored back against the black sheen when the holes do not. Stuart Comer, curator of film at Tate Modern was found to enjoy this curatorial trend. He particularly admired Marc Camille Chaimowicz's installation of a curtain covering a part of the glass building, exhibited alongside suspended patterned silkscreen prints that, according to Comer, “brilliantly unsettled Mies van der Rohe's iconic architecture and provoked a fundamental re-reading of the German modernist trajectory.”

Baghramian also curated the first of five shows running in succession at the fourth biennial venue, the Schinkel Pavillion, and chose to exhibit the work of 98-year old designer Janette Laverriere. As of April 10, the new curator is Lars Laumann, who has chosen work by fellow Norwegian artist Pushwagner (whose monumental pictorial novel Soft City is in the KW). Laumann, who was supported at the opening by gallerist Maureen Paley with whom he just signed, is widely considered the star of the biennial. During informal drinks at industry hangout Keyser Soze, yards from the KW, assembled critics, curators, and gallery staffers praised his video installation in the Skulpturenpark that relates the story of a woman who claims to have fallen in love with and had an affair with the Berlin Wall. It’s a work that seems to sum up the entire biennial, at once conceptual, metaphorical, and political and taking its hook from a host city that is so full of intrigue, history, and creativity, it’s hard not to love it, despite the peeling, creaking appearance.

Of course biennials are never just about what falls under their official curatorial programs. Between events, viewers took hectic trips to other Berlin art venues, the most popular being the Christian Jankowski show at Galerie Klosterfelde and the fear-inducing, large-scale, expertly curated retrospective of Wolfgang Tillmans at the Hamburger Bahnhof. Gossip also centered on the top-secret collection of Christian Boros, which opens to the public next month but was seen by a select number of VIPs. The tight security and aura of exclusivity ensured that by myth alone the Boros collection will be the newest jewel in Berlin’s art capital crown. But that’s another story all together.