Four biennials to see this northern European summer

The “biennale” was established in Venice, Italy in the early 1900s. La Serenissima’s version is still the most famous, but the biennale (or biennial in English) concept has taken hold internationally in more recent times. Hundreds of these two-yearly contemporary art festivals are now staged in cities from Reykjavik to Sydney.

“Burden of Proof” installation by Australian artist Amy Claire Mills.

You don’t need to be into art and design to find something enriching in these often free events. Biennials might be mostly about visual creativity, but they also offer a sticky beak into some of their city’s intriguing spaces.

This northern summer sees iterations of four major biennials that prove the point.

The 13th Berlin Biennale starts June 14 and runs until September 14, showing new and established artists. The London Design Biennial runs throughout June. In the biennale home, Venice Biennale Architettura 2025 is on and running until the end of November, exploring the world of architecture. In the north of England, the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art touted as Britain’s largest of its kind, has just started and runs until the end of September.

Many exhibits take over unique and otherwise publicly inaccessible spaces, or even just places you may not have considered putting on a sightseeing itinerary.

The London Design Biennale, for instance, is in Somerset House, a conglomeration of historic government buildings in the heart of the city on the Strand, given over to public use and art since the year 2000.

Berlin’s Sophiensaele.

The Berlin Biennale is spread across four venues chosen for their stories. Alongside the KW Institute for Contemporary Art (founded in a derelict margarine factory in 1991), venues include Sophiensaele, an independent theatre established in the early 1900s Craftsmen’s Association building, once a meeting place for revolutionaries, and Hamburger Bahnhof, a railway terminus turned into a major contemporary art gallery. The Biennale is also debuting a former 1900s courthouse on Lehrter Strasse as a new art space.

The Tate Liverpool.Credit: Brian Roberts

In Liverpool, sites include Pine Court, the heritage site of the Pine Court Housing Association in the heart of the city’s Chinatown, and The Black-E, Liverpool’s pioneering arts and community centre, which join venues such as Liverpool Cathedral, Liverpool Central Library, Open Eye Gallery, Tate Liverpool + RIBA North and Walker Art Gallery.

Artist Amy Claire Mills.Credit: Louis Lim

A series of outdoor works are also installed at sites across the city including Liverpool ONE, Mann Island, St John’s Gardens and the grounds of The Oratory at Liverpool Cathedral.

There has been controversy surrounding Australia’s showing at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale with artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino being dropped as Australia’s representatives. But this country’s artists continue to play a prominent part in biennials around the world.

Acclaimed Sydney artist Amy Claire Mills is showing as part of the 2025 Liverpool Biennial. Her textile work focuses on her intimacy with medical procedures as a person living with disability, “blending softness, tactility, empathy, and care with elements of dissent, disruption, and provocation”.

Her work was also part of the 2024 Biennale of Sydney, the 2026 edition of which will be the festival’s 25th anniversary. It will inhabit the White Bay Power Station in the city’s Bays West precinct.

See londondesignbiennale.com; labiennale.org/en/architecture/2025; berlinbiennale.de; biennial.com biennialeofsydney.art