Theories of art biennials and globalization

This chapter reconstructs established theoretical approaches to the role of art biennials in global art and introduces the concept of “world events”. Drawing on literature from art history, exhibition history, and sociology, we outline major theoretical trajectories. While biennials are considered the most important institution of global art throughout the literature, we demonstrate that art history and exhibition history have canonized a certain narrative of the biennials’ history—one that includes specific editions functioning as “model cases”, as adequate institutions of modernity, and as paradigmatic innovators for broader developments in the arts. Sociological approaches (production of culture, hegemony, field theory) interpret biennials as both symptoms and driving forces of global art. Furthermore, biennials serve as prime research objects for analyzing cross-symbolic entanglements between art, politics, economy, and other domains. Building on these interdisciplinary theorizations, we introduce the concept of “world event” ( R. Stichweh ) to shed light on biennials’ capacity to display, justify, and perform an entire global art world in a complex society.