Periodical mania and agricultural models of publishing in art biennials

This chapter examines the expansive role of publishing in contemporary art biennials, where catalogues, guides, magazines, readers and literary books have become integral—almost pervasive—elements of the curatorial and communicative infrastructure. While publishing strategies vary across biennials, a common feature is the intensive circulation of printed materials before, during and after the exhibition. Among these, magazines have emerged as particularly potent tools for negotiating the biennial’s inherent temporal limitations. Thanks to their accessible formats, quick production cycles and ephemeral nature, periodicals not only bridge the two-year gap between editions but also expand and complicate the traditional function of the catalogue by conveying more dynamic, processual and lived dimensions of the exhibition. Through the analysis of two case studies, both from 2021, the chapter explores how exhibition magazines mediate between the biennial’s manic drive for constant production and slower, alternative models of knowledge circulation. Focusing on the 17th Istanbul Biennial’s use of newspaper publishing and the concept of “composting”, as well as documenta fifteen ’s Majalah Lumbung and its “rice barn” methodology, it investigates how agricultural metaphors can serve as counter-narratives to acceleration, proposing publishing practices rooted in collectivity, memory and cyclical time.