Institutional Role of the Biennial in Shaping the Status of Contemporary Art

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the Biennale as an institution for the legitimation of contemporary art within 21st-century culture. The methodological foundation of the article is cultural analysis, which makes it possible to consider the biennale as an institution, an event, and a mechanism for producing artistic significance within the global cultural field. To clarify the processes of legitimization, institutional and discursive approaches are employed: through these, the curatorial selection, exhibition framework, public visibility, symbolic capital, and modes of interpreting contemporary art are analyzed. Scientific novelty. The article demonstrates that the legitimising function of the biennale is realised through institutional selection, curatorial interpretation, exhibition framing, awards, media coverage, national representation, and the inclusion of artists into the global art discourse. Conclusions. In the 21st century, biennales have become a preeminent form of global presentation for contemporary art; however, their role extends far beyond the function of a periodic exhibition. They actively participate in shaping artistic status, international visibility, and symbolic capital, while also defining what art is considered relevant and representative within contemporary culture. Biennales legitimate not only individual works or artists but also specific themes, regions, identities, and models of curatorial practice. They emerge as cultural mechanisms for the production of status, meaning, and symbolic recognition of contemporary art. Their impact is ambivalent: while expanding the boundaries of the artistic canon, they simultaneously reproduce the hierarchies of the global art space.