For over a century, the Venice Biennial (aka la Biennale di Venezia) has been exhibiting contemporary art to an international audience. With its inauguration in 1895, there began an era of renewed interest in not only the work of contemporary artists but also with the art market as an entity. During the 6 month exhibition, held every 2 years in the city provence of Venice, Italy, displays are curated for living (and occasionally deceased) contemporary artists categorized by countries into disparate pavilions. Yet the Biennale has evolved over time, and in this inherent change that comes with age and experience and growth in repetition we can see how the evolution has changed in turn the way that we look at art. With modern globalization and the rise of international communication, the context in which art is made and by whom it is seen changes how we interpret the efforts of the artistic community, and in this way the Venice Biennale remains relevant to our study of how people in the 21st century see contemporary art. Beyond its importance to the art market, the Venice Biennale has global, social, and political implications which can no longer be ignored as essential to its worth and long standing survival.
In the year 1893, the Venetian City Council set forth plans to celebrate the silver anniversary of King Umberto and Margherita of Savoy. The mayor, Riccardo Selvatico, and the Council proposed an extended exposition of the arts to beheld in the public venue of the Giardini di Castello the next year. Thus the decree went forth on the 19th of April for the first Esposizione biennale artistic nazionale. They set forth the following guidelines: 1. participation in the exposition would be by invitation 2. some section of the event would be set aside for the participation of other nations to be included 3. some Italian artists could be represented at the event, without invitations, if they were selected by a jury. Here begins the long and prestigious history of the world's oldest living biennale.
King Umberto I and his Queen
Besides the impetus of a celebration for the anniversary of the King, one of the main goals of this first exposition was to create a new international market for contemporary artworks. To carry out this agenda, the first events were opened with the presence of a sales office. The job of the sales office was to assist artists in finding a clientele and then selling their work. For this service they charged a 10% sales commission from the artists, and the biennale had a fairly steady and distinct stream of revenue generated by the sale of art on the grounds. They perpetuated sales purposefully to gain profit and to boost their reputation as a stimulus to the art market. In its first year, the sales office assisted in the sales of over 50% of works shown, a raging success for the times. Another founding intention was the biennale's research and promotion of emerging artists and new artistic trends. The Venice Biennale carried out this goal by mandating that all work exhibited must be new work and not have been previously shown in another venue. In this way, the art to be seen at the pavilions would always be fresh and this rule would further encourage artistic growth among its constituents. Later on down the road, the Arsenale would be set up for the exhibition of works by young artists at a time when the biennale still focused much of its efforts on promoting the work of the established. Finally, the Venetian City Council sought to improve the tradition of Italian art criticism. To this end, in 1897 they established a Critic's Prize to be awarded by the jury for excellence in criticism and with the additional benefits of encouraging press for the events.
Map of Venice locales
The physical make up of the Venice Biennale consists of two distinct arenas of art exhibition. The first we discuss here is the Giardini, formally the Giardini di Castello - meaning "the Gardens of Castello", is also the original site and only site for the original esposizione in 1895. The other, the Arsenale, was added later to accommodate the increased volumes and sizes of art and to allow for more diversity in the variety of work shown. The Giardini di Castello was sanctioned as the original site for the first biennial, called 1 Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della Citta' di Venezia which opened to great acclaim and rave reviews on the 30th of April, 1895 after two years of preparation and one year after the initial projected date of completion in 1894. In 1894, construction was well under way for the main pavilion then calledil Palazzo dell'Esposizione which was later renamed Italia. Besides the main pavilion, there are now currently 29 other national pavilions scattered throughout the Giardini each built by a different architect as chosen by its representative country, and each constructed at various points in history. The complete list of countries represented by a built pavilion and their architect names and years of completion can be found on the biennale website. The gardens are in full green glory upon the biennale's opening days in early June, providing a lush and vibrant environment in which to experience the art of the world. The other main exhibition space of works is a more recent addition to the viewing grounds. The Arsenale was the world's largest pre-industrial production center that consisted of a large shipyard, warehouses for mass storage, and factories for a plethora of naval and military goods including one particularly large rope production facility. The Arsenale was where the legendary Venetian fleets of old were built, stored, and docked. This history makes the Arsenale space a symbolic space of power and prestige for the Italian city, given its historical naval importance. This space has been in use since the 1980 induction of an architectural exhibit followed by lengthy restoration efforts and the addition of new entrances to service the disconnected space. As can be seen in this arial map of the city, the Arsenale and the Giardini are separated by a few narrow streets, bridges, and at least one main canal channel. During the Venice Biennale the directions from one area to the next are clearly marked and the city buildings in between are chock full of off-site pavilions for countries new to the Biennale or who simply do not have the financial means available to build their own. One such space is the Gervasuti Foundation, a privately owned foundation for the arts which loaned its accommodations for use by the newly arriving Iraq and Bangladesh pavilions in 2011, but more on that later.
Bice Curiger
As of 2011 the Venice Biennale Art Exhibition has a President supported by the country's minister of affairs, a Vice President, and a board currently consisting of 4 members who assist in running and regulating the events. The President for the 2011 Biennale titled Illuminazioni ("illuminations") is Bice Curiger. The biennale also invites sponsorship of the events by companies. These companies can contribute to the biennale and become partners. While the Venice Biennale website never specifically addresses the need for monetary contributions, it seems as if the exchange of currency is an unspoken understanding. Mentioning finances would be extremely taboo for the authorities of the biennale because so much care is taken by curators and commissioners to paint the events as a locus for experiment and not a place of commerce. In order to scape from an association with commodities, curators and commissioners also like to down play the impact that the Venice Biennale has on the art market, specifically the impact that it has on the prices of artworks shown there. The figureheads prefer to have the Biennale "packaged as a social and cultural experience". It is marketed for its historical significance as the oldest biennale, the model for all of the biennales which would succeed it, and a place of artistic experiment legitimized by a rich history of quality and innovation. Newspapers, magazines, curators, and dealers all solicit stories on the event and the art that appears there. Documentaries are made, stories are written, pictures are taken, opinions and reviews are published. The biennale website has a section for contacting their press office, and I know from personal experience that there is a space designated for the press representatives of pavilions with special amenities for members of the press, including free materials and catalogs and air conditioning in a hot italian summer to entice the press to stay and write many things. 
Venice Biennale Ufficio di Stampa
Historically, national pavilions have tended to favor artists with long and strong CVs to best represent them nationally. Yet, in the last decade, curators have been showing younger and younger artists. This new artist, with works yet unseen and unestablished, lends curators the opportunity to prove their aptitude at discovering talent and showcasing fresh works. The impact of showing at the Venice Biennale can be dramatic for young artists hoping to improve the sales of their work or increase the asking price. Not only does the event expose these artists to a wide array of curators, collectors, dealers, museum heads, cultural organizations, and the media, but it is also a branded event which gives the artists a legitimacy that comes from having displayed works in the same venues as Renoir, Klimt, Picasso, and Courbet. However, any improvement to the sales of these emerging artists does not happen on the biennale's grounds. No money is exchanged here. Sales of work have been banned since 1968 following a massive protest of students and intellectuals against the bourgeois culture of leisure art. They occupied the Giardini to protest the sale of works, claiming that the Venice Biennale was helping to commodify culture. While most cannot claim that their aims were not pure, the future effect is not as they imagined. The Venice Biennale has more market power than ever these days because in the current art market, purity (in the form of decommercialization and an indifference to the market) can cause great sway in terms of market influence. The disinterest shown in commerce by the curators, commissioners, and organizing bodies may be an act, but by whatever standards it accrues symbolic capital which can eventually be exchanged for economic capital in the form of growth in market prices. Unfortunately, when the sales office was taken down in 1968 a vital revenue for the Biennale was cut off. This has resulted in the show's reliance on external financing, namely dealers.
Even though money doesn't exchange hands at the Venice Biennale anymore, the market there is still thriving. It has been driven underground, for sure, but exists in the form of promises, speculation, reservations, and handshakes.
"In 2007, London’s White Cube gallery had sold the majority of the works by Tracey Emin in the British pavilion before the biennale had even opened officially. In the same year, the French super-collector François Pinault snapped up a series of paintings by Sigmar Polke in the Padiglione Italia, much to the dismay of some museum directors, who, as Pinault put it mischievously in a recent interview with the Financial Times, arrived “un peu après”". - The Venice Effect
A large contributor to this continuation of the art market is seen in the biennale's proximity and similarity in season to Art Basel, only a few weeks after the opening of the Venice Biennale in June. There is a significant amount of artistic and gallery overlap between these two monstrous art community events in Western Europe. For those dealers who will also be exhibiting at Basel, the Venice Biennale offers the chance to gauge interest in artists and works, set prices according to competition, and then sell the work for the highest means and to the best collectors a few weeks later. Even though they don't technically sell their wares at the biennale, curators and dealers still spend the opening days accumulating symbolic value for their work by schmoozing with all of the right art community figures, being seen in all the right parties, and sizing up their competition in the time to come. The Venice Biennale is a brand unto itself through its public, highly visible, and exclusive nature. These attributes make the whole affair a recognized power player in the art market because they inspire confidence, in those who attend, that the works being showcased are the cream of the crop so to speak. While Branding is not the only aspect, it is very powerful and important to the Biennale's impact on the art market of today.
Because of the Biennale's important role as an authoritative and representative figure in the realm of the artistic, it can also greatly affect those who come to display works here. This group includes not only young emerging artists as discussed earlier, but also the artistic fate and progress of countries who come to the Venice Biennale for the first time - or return after many years away. The pavilions that are seen are supported by organizations and art funds and dealers and governments, not the Venice Biennale directly, so often an opening also suggests that that country is beginning to invest in its art and cultural progress on an international platform. Participation in the show signals to the international scene that a country is ready to expand its cultural significance and invest in its talent. One such example is the Bangladesh pavilion which opened its doors at the Gervasuti Foundation in June of 2011 for the first time. In the past, Bangladesh went unrepresented because of a "lack of resources and poor communication" which had limited the country's global reached and opportunities. It is said that the Bangladesh art scene "lacks the support of a wealthy global elite". The Venice Biennale offers an international arena in which Bangladesh can compete fairly with other countries for support and acknowledgement. The location of the pavilion does pose some problems, as Bangladesh does not yet have the funding available to build its own pavilion on the Giardini. The Gervasuti Foundation, a private arts foundation owned in part by Fiona Biggiero (who also happens to be the co-commissioner for the Bangladesh pavilion), housed not only the Bangladeshi but also the Iraqi artists. This building, though beautiful in its own right, is slightly off the beaten track, to be found somewhere between the Giardini and the Arsenale, across the water from another off-site pavilion for Wales.
Mahbubur Rahman - installation sculpture
Even with all its denials, the biennale still helps artists who show there to get good representation, boost sale prices, speed up the rate of sales. Showing with the biennale is a sign of legitimacy and a marker of quality for artworks. Showing in the exhibition used to celebrate a long and successful career as a kind of milestone, now it is a beginning for showcasing new talents on the international level. The branding of the Venice Biennale will impact the careers of the youngest and newest artists more strongly than those simply being acknowledged for a long and successful oeuvre.
As an international platform, the Venice Biennale can say a lot about the state of the world. At a time in history when we see some nations' governmental structures failing, and they are welcomed, despite war, into the Venice Biennale, we must take note of the neutral status held by the biennale and an openness to art as a form of expression (not of aggression) in non-neutral times. The art itself is not neutral, but the biennale doesn't (itself) censor the messages that are delivered to it. The Biennale occasionally even takes a stance in support of a nation in troubled times or against a regime which is suppressing expression and freedom, two rights the Biennale culture holds dear. The Venice Biennale is slowly becoming a platform for political and social expression through art of the current state of a nation, the impact of politics on humanity, and the need for a global community of awareness. Unlike art fairs, the show allows for accident in the practice of curating by nation instead of as a whole which can lend artwork unintended but deepening layers of interpretation on an international level. The practice of curating by nation, and allowing governments a hand in some selections, has given the entire thing the possibility of political motives… though many times we notice none. The narrative of each country is broadened and sharpened by its juxtaposition with other nations as seen by passerby. An example is the duality of the theme of war between the Iraq and Wales pavilions situated facing each other in off-site pavilions. Though seemingly unrelated, the pavilions enter into a dialogue with one another to express meaningful connections. The themes we see resonating are put onto a global platter and seen altogether we notice how small is the world and how similar are her peoples.
Further examples of the Venice Biennale's political reach can be found. In the case of the dedication of the 1974 Venice Biennale: The event was dedicated to Chile, adopting the nation's cause, in a political statement against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In the political pressure felt by the Zimbabwean government at the opening of its pavilion: After the arrest of artist Owen Maseko, who is being held for trial after a solo exhibition of work in which he represents and criticizes the government sanctioned massacres of the 1980s, the government was under a great amount of scrutiny as it presented its other renowned artists at the Biennale. In the protests for Ai Weiwei's release: Artist Ai Weiwei is currently being held without charge by the Chinese government after the creation of some works against the authorities. Protestors could be seen with signs calling for Ai Weiwei's release around the Giardini grounds. The Venice Biennale offers a neutral ground on which governments do now prosecute, though they sometimes censor… and it has established itself as a place of political and social protest (often, though not always, in the form of art). Artist Alsoudani for the Iraq pavilion, makes a lot of sense when he claims that there "is no Chinese art scene, or indian art scene, or middle east" claiming that it is simply easier to categorize by such standards when the world is actually getting smaller and more global.
The Venice Biennale's past is behind it, so it falls on the present to secure a long, lasting, and impactful future. Strategies for survival, in an era filled with commerce and art fairs that threaten to overtake it, will be several-fold: differentiating itself from the commercial world by autonomy of the arts, continuing to support progress and innovation in the arts, embracing emerging artists on merit, creating a sense of exclusivity, producing strong and relevant revenue streams that don't objectify or commodify the art on display, and continuing to open before Art Basel to ensure good crowds.
1)http://metropolism.com/magazine/2008-no3/the-art-fair-age/english
2)http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/The-Venice-Effect/23951
3)http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Newcomers-make-their-mark-at-Venice/23956
7)http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/06/06/bangladeshi-art-has-its-biennale-debut/
8)http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jun/07/venice-biennale-political-power-curating-country
9)http://www.artandpoliticsnow.com/tag/mahbubur-rahman/
10)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice_Biennale
11)http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34579/bice-curiger-to-curate-2011-venice-biennale/
12)http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012xt77
14)http://www.venicebiennale-bangladeshpavilion.org/