Shifting Gravity

Book excerpt: The rise in biennials worldwide over the past three decades--and most notably in Asia--provokes a shift away from the traditional centers of contemporary art and signifies a new cultural phenomenon that changes the way we understand the relationship between artistic creation, institutions, localities, and social relations. Biennials provide a platform for presenting contemporary art from the world over to a traveling group of art professionals, but more importantly to a wide public. Initiated by the Biennial Foundation and hosted by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation in South Korea, the inaugural World Biennial Forum investigated this multiplicity of new centers and gravities along with the heterogeneous practices in large-scale art shows today. This publication collects the presentations and discussions developed during the forum. Keynotes by eminent intellectuals on democracy, aesthetic representation, and cosmopolitanism help us conceive of biennials as an alternative space of political imagination. Case studies with a focus on Asia examine innovative and contextually relevant models of presentations of this kind in the Asia Pacific region. The contributions look back to the history of biennials, or investigate contemporary art's relationship with other disciplines. Biennials featured (selection):Anyang Public Art Project, Biennale of Sydney, Chobi Mela, Emergency Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, Mediacity Seoul, Shanghai Biennale, Taipei Biennial, Tbilisi Triennial, Yokohama Triennial