ABSTRACT
The word biennial has a particular resonance when spoken in Italian – ‘biennale’ – and associated with the city of Venice. The Asia-Pacific Triennial, staged in Brisbane, Australia, in 2018, and the Gwangju Biennale, staged in Korea, drew crowds well in excess of the Venice Biennale, highlighting the emergence of new power houses outside of Euro-America. In the late 19th century, Venice was a popular location for writers, architects, artists and poets; however, the city itself was on ‘its last legs both socially and economically’ and needed a vision to draw on its earlier success. The devolution of venues by the organisers of the Biennale, to allow nations to exhibit in their own buildings, has done much to highlight the effect of space on the representation of contemporary visual arts and in turn the powers that initiate and shape national representation.
