Abstract
AbstractThere is a boom of art historical studies on the globalisation of the arts or global art world. Sociological accounts are, despite the rise of cultural and art sociology in recent years, almost complete absent from this discussion. This paper makes a contribution to the globalisation of the arts, but from a sociological and quantitative perspective. The focus of this paper is on particular type of global institution – biennials and other types of art festivals or large-scale exhibitions. These institutions are seen being major places of exchange and formulation of norms and standards. They define what is hip and new. However, theories of globalisation, in combination with accounts from professionals of the field, claim that these institutions propagate only Western values or have a homogenising quality, because they only show caste works from artists of the Western hemisphere or that they repeat the same works and artists across the globe. However, based on a large-scale quantitative survey, this paper will demonstrate that picture is more complex and that we find tendencies to homogenisation and heterogenisation existing at the same time or that the locality of these events acts as a source of uniqueness and innovativeness. The paper proposes a new theoretical framework that interprets these findings as based on Niklas Luhmann’s idea of second-order observation and Bruno Latour’s and Harrison C. White’s conception of the network.
Highlights
The research1 described here investigates the global development of international art events such as biennials, music and theatre festivals, which emerged after World War II and are considered key institutions in the global art world
Art historians leading the current debate on globalisation of the arts view the international art festivals and biennales that emerged after World War II as an important global institution
Based on their research and their professional experience in curating and directing such events, they have voiced important concerns about how artists are selected for these events and the potential negative impact of this selection process on the global art world
Summary
The research1 described here investigates the global development of international art events such as biennials, music and theatre festivals, which emerged after World War II and are considered key institutions in the global art world.2 Despite the recent rise of art sociology, no recent sociological overview or summary of globalisation has incorporated the global art world or paid much attention to these events.3 over the last 10 years, globalisation in the arts has attracted increasing research interest within the history of art, covering a broad range of topics that include methodological questions about how art history as a discipline can function in a global world, global historical narratives (Elkins 2007; Honour and Fleming 2009; Belting, Birken, and Buddensieg 2011; Verhagen 2017) and national art worlds in an international context (Belting, Weibel, and Buddensieg 2007; Belting and Buddensieg 2009; Onians 2008; Harris 2011; Elkins, Valiavicharska, and Kim 2011). From among the hundreds (or more) of such field-configuring events annually, this article focuses on a number of well-known examples from three important areas of the global art world: (1) visual arts and film; (2) theatre and dance; and (3) sound art and electronic media.
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