What Is a Biennale? Why Artists Should Follow Contemporary Art Biennales

A biennale is a large-scale exhibition project that takes place every two years. That is where the name comes from: a biennale every two years, a triennale every three. The Venice Biennale is considered the world’s foremost biennale, where the most current art is shown, the art that sets the direction of the conversation for the next two years.

For an artist, the interesting thing here is not the frequency as such. A biennale is a good illustration of how the art world is structured, and of why two exhibitions of contemporary art can occupy entirely different positions within it.

A biennale sets the agenda

I went to the Venice Biennale, received the catalogue, and afterwards discussed the agenda in detail with colleagues. At that Biennale I did not see a single work in an ironic or humorous vein. The conversation there was about what matters.

I put documenta and Manifesta in the same category. Platforms like these shape the conversation in art, bring particular themes into view, and show what the institutional world is occupied with at a given moment.

That is why it makes sense to look at a biennale as something broader than a big exhibition with a huge number of works. You and I can see which themes are becoming part of the shared conversation, and in what artistic language that conversation is being held.

A good example of how the work itself operates here is Chiharu Shiota’s total installation at the Venice Biennale. Two boats are joined by a vast number of threads, with keys hanging from them. What emerges is a kind of river of time, in which each little key opens the door to some life.

We look at an ordinary installation from the outside. In a total installation we find ourselves inside the work of art. The space can no longer be separated from the work itself or from our contact with it.

Two exhibitions can carry different weight

Someone with no connection to the contemporary art market could easily put the Venice Biennale and an exhibition at some regional museum on the same list. Both show contemporary art, and both may include performative practice. But these are entirely different venues.

Look: for an artist, this difference becomes especially visible in the CV. The job of a CV is not simply to list every event the artist has ever taken part in. From a CV we can tell what stage of their career an artist has reached and how established they are in the art world.

So one line can say far more about an artist than another. You need to understand the standing of the particular venue, rather than going only by the word “exhibition” or “biennale” in the title.

The sheer amount of exhibition activity does not settle the matter either. Some venues work with artists of a certain level, while others deliberately look for young artists.

The art world does not end with Moscow

As far as Russia is concerned, decentralisation is under way. In this context the Ural Industrial Biennial is the largest platform.

Another example is the Zarya Center for Contemporary Art in Vladivostok. In Nikola-Lenivets there is the Archstoyanie festival and a whole art park, where art is integrated directly into the space.

What I like here is the logic itself. An artist does not have to think of a career as a path that runs through one city only. A professional scene exists in different places, and a particular venue can be strong precisely because of the context it creates around art.

Match the venue to the stage you are at

Clearly, the artists who get into galleries on the level of Pace and White Cube, or into the Venice Biennale, are those with a serious CV. But that does not mean it is impossible to get there. It is more a question of the sequence of steps.

If you are just starting out, it makes sense to look for venues where you can compete at your current stage. In Russia, for example, there is the Blazar art fair, which is aimed at young artists. Later, as your practice develops, the range of events worth taking part in will change too.

Every venue expects a certain responsibility from the artist. The higher its level, the more serious the demands on the artist, on their practice and on their ability to keep up with the pace that the art world sets.

That is why I would not try to fill a CV with the biggest names straight away. It is far more useful to understand where you are now and which venue corresponds to your next step. The biennale is a good reference point here: it shows particularly clearly how far the name of an event is tied to its real position in the art world.