Issue 39 / June 2018
eds. Ronald Kolb, Shwetal A. Patel

Draft: Global Biennial Survey 2018

This draft edition of OnCurating began life by a group of scholars and researchers asking a series of questions about the nature of art production and curating today and what role, if any, biennials play within this paradigm. We wanted to examine and question the underlying assumptions and factors that are generally attributed to the rise in the number of large-scale recurring exhibitions and create a draft-working document that may spur further research and analyses by practitioners and scholars in the field. Is the biennial format really a worldwide phenomena? And if so, to what extent? Do biennials look the same everywhere because mostly world-renowned artists are exhibited? To what extent is the local context important? Who can see these kind of globally conntected exhibitions? Who profits in the end? Is the rise in biennials foremost a power move of the financial side of an unregulated art market? Are there still narratives of colonial past at work?

Table of Contents Issue 39