Art biennials

The worldwide proliferation of art biennials and other periodical high-profile exhibitions is often criticized for homogenizing art under neoliberal, high-class and Eurocentric frameworks. Yet this proliferation is also bound to diverse geopolitical, curatorial and social practices that endlessly generate difference from and opposition to these frameworks. This introduction situates the Routledge Companion to Art Biennials within debates permeating the field of biennial studies. The volume assembles forty-six chapters that explore art biennials as sites of artistic display, cultural diplomacy, urban development and political contestation. The introduction outlines the historical trajectories of art biennials, from their 19th-century origins to their post-Cold War and post-1990s multiplication, while critically engaging with debates on globalization, inclusion and institutional critique. It positions the volume as an interdisciplinary intervention, bridging art history, curatorial studies, political theory, cultural theory and postcolonial critique. By mapping some of the field’s key themes—biennialization, mediated relevance and counter-biennials—the volume expands biennial studies, offering a pluralistic framework to analyse these exhibitions as dynamic, contested and transnationally interconnected singularities.