Arts & International Affairs: 2.3: Autumn/Winter 2017 | Page 75

THE SCALES, POLITICS, AND POLITICAL
ECONOMIES OF CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNIALS
JULIA BETHWAITE
Faculty of Management, Degree Programme of Politics,
University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
Julia Bethwaite is a Doctoral Student in International Relations in the
Faculty of Management, University of Tampere, Finland. Bethwaite ex-
plores the role of art in international relations with a focus on Russian
actors in the transnational field of art. She examines practices of cultural
diplomacy, transnational cultural relations and the interaction of state
and non-state actors within the field of art.
ANNI KANGAS
Faculty of Management, Degree Programme of Politics,
University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
Anni Kangas is a University Lecturer in International Relations and acts
as the Academic Director of the Master’s Programme in Leadership for
Change in the Faculty of Management, University of Tampere, Finland.
Her research interests are in the role of art and popular culture in inter-
national relations and the impact of urbanization on world politics. Her
research dealing with these issues has been published in Geopolitics,
Global Networks, Journal of International Relations and Development
and Millennium: Journal of International Studies.
ABSTRACT
The number of contemporary art biennials has increased significantly
over the last 25 years giving rise to the phenomenon of biennalization
of contemporary art. In this article, we detail the world politics of bien-
nalization through a review of mainly academic literature on biennials.
We analyze internal definitions within the reviewed material through
three dimensions: scale, politics, and production of value (political
economies). Our analysis shows the world politics of biennials revolves
around a set of productive tensions between the order of nation states
and its alternatives, cultural dominance and resistance, and various
modes of value production.
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doi: 10.18278/aia.2.3.6