ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how controversies relate to 7th Berlin Biennale (BB7) and its very unusual institutional experiment: hosting in its main showroom, and for all its duration, activists from the Occupy movement. The value system of BB7 was manifestly at odds with the exhibition as a site of discursive and semiotic interventions. BB7 was severely attacked by the art press, receiving unprecedented negative criticism by critics, especially on issues related to curatorial strategy, effectiveness and aesthetic quality. The public funding from the German Federal Cultural Foundation enables in this way a more transparent selection of curators, themes and artists. Other participants in the Biennale include a few people working in the office of the Kunst Werke, who hold permanent or semi-permanent positions, and a number of temporary workers hired specifically for the show, such as invigilators, production assistants and tour guides.
