Entangled biennials as tactical (trans)instituting

In this collaborative chapter, we propose to see biennials not as separate events but rather as interlocking, cross-scalar ecosystems. We propose to analyze them as deeply interconnected with one another, as well as with diverse, seemingly local or national institutional initiatives and histories. Our focus is on a distinctive tactic that we may call tactical cross-scale instituting or transinstituting. Artist collectives and networks, especially from the so-called Global South, make use of either the biennial format or one of the major biennials’ infrastructure in order to sustain and expand their ongoing grassroots work. Our interlocked case studies are the Palestinian biennials such as Qalandiya International (QI), the OFF-biennale Budapest (OFF), as well as the ‘lumbung practice’ at documenta fifteen, which OFF as well as some members of QI contributed to.