THE SCALES , POLITICS , AND POLITICAL ECONOMIES OF CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNIALS
politically . It utilizes the idea of universality and universally shared feelings and agreements , and takes place in negotiations concerning the label of art and esthetic judgments ( de Duve 2007:684 – 685 ).
[ Kant ] grasped that an issue of such magnitude as peace on earth was at stake in a sentence so anodyne as “ this rose is beautiful ”. When replaced by “ this cultural product is art ”, the real depth of his thinking on aesthetics comes to the fore . ( de Duve 2007:686 ).
Another way of addressing the global character of contemporary art biennials is presented in Nadine Siegert ’ s analysis of the Luanda Triennial . Siegert ’ s analysis takes place against the background of Becker ’ s well-known idea of an “ art world ”, which is constituted by individuals ( and organizations ) who contribute to the production of works of art while being dispersed around the world ( Siegert 2014:176 ). Siegert points out that such a conception of the international art world has tended to exclude the Global South : the proliferation of the biennial institution across the world does not guarantee mobility and interaction in equal measure for all . Today ’ s art world “ consists of a number of smaller , locally embedded art scenes , each with very different histories and dimensions ” ( Siegert 2014:176 ). It is thus global in the sense of being a decentered and pluralized entanglement or assemblage . As Siegert emphasizes , it is important to pay attention to the intertwining of the global and local and the resulting political dynamics when discussing the “ globalization ” of biennials . Interestingly , Siegert discovers that the idea of national reconstruction and representation has played a crucial role when biennials — e . g . the Cairo Biennial , Dak ’ art , Rencontres de Bamako , and Johannesburg Biennale — have been founded on the African continent . For example , at the same time , as the actors involved with the Luanda Triennial aspire to “ global participation ” and seek recognition from the “ international art world ”, the exhibition has had an important role in negotiating and reconstructing the decolonized , postwar Angolan society , and its relation to the world . The Luanda Triennial , while avoiding the concept of national art , remains in many ways tied to the key notions and images of Angolan patriotism and nationalism ( Siegert 2014:188 ). Siegert ’ s analysis thus illustrates an important point about biennials more generally : a variety of sociospatial orderings matters and different spatial framings are productively intertwined in the politics of biennials .
Biennials as an Instrument of Cultural Domination
The way in which biennials are scaled is closely related to the question of their politics , i . e . whether and how biennial practices produce and reproduce existing power relations and serve as mechanisms of cultural domination . In other words , the scales of biennials are co-implicated not only with each other but also with different understandings of politics : contestation , resistance , dissent , hegemony , and empowerment . In this section of the review article , we detail this aspect in the world politics of biennials .
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