Biennale practices: making and sustaining visual art platforms

Abstract

Since the 19th century, sites of artistic production and display intended to attract an
international audience have proliferated. This phenomenon is visible in the number
and geographical diversity of public and private museums, expos, galleries, art fairs
and biennials. Biennials, over 300 of which are estimated to exist today, are
manifestations of what Horkheimer and Adorno termed the ‘Culture Industry’, at
once spectacular and flattening in their effects. However, this theory minimises the
role of site-specific practices in counteracting these homogenising effects in making
and sustaining arts platforms and exhibitory models. Despite the variety of visual art
biennials in existence today, there is a growing sense of standardisation and
homogeneity in the field. This phenomenon is described here as ‘biennialisation’.
Since the 1980s researchers have attempted to elucidate the format, though it
remains difficult to conjecture how to create meaningful outcomes and impact in an
increasingly interconnected and commercialised sphere. To date, few attempts have
been made to fundamentally reconfigure approaches to the making and sustaining
of biennials and to reframe their discoursive domain.
This practice-based PhD draws upon my role as an arts writer, researcher and
producer and extensive engagement with the international artworld to reflect upon
these phenomenon. It draws directly upon my working methods sustained over the
duration of the research to illuminate key aspects of what I argue for as ‘biennale
practices’. This practice has developed to produce an articulation of a set of evolving
critical tools that allows for a conceptualisation and analysis of the field, imagining
new evaluative methodologies and theoretical approaches.
This research practice combines with a reading of theories by sociologist Pierre
Bourdieu and economist Amartya Sen to offer an alternative organisational and
strategic paradigm and an expanded evaluative framework to inform local and
international arts policy, planning and curricula. This theoretical synthesis (Sen
Bourdieu Analytical Framework) offers a conceptual model that illustrates the socially
dynamic processes within and through which audiences, artists, art professionals,
funders and policymakers engage with formal and informal cultural fields. Another
approach is to view art-producing practices as interconnected processes; the
platforming phenomenon is producing practices that in turn contribute to the
production of sustainable arts organisations such as biennials. In this sense, we can
also consider how practitioners not only help shape sites such as biennials, but also
may in turn shape evaluative and methodological strategies in the wider artistic and
cultural field.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Sunil Manghani: orcid.org/0000-0001-6406-7456

Catalogue record

Export record