The carbon footprint of the art world's Biennale industry

[gallery link="file" columns="2"] As I work on a project about Venice's Art Biennale, I'm thinking about what a massive carbon footprint it has. For those not in the know, the art biennale which happens every 2 years in Venice is the world's oldest, and has spawned a whole industry of  biennales all over the world - Istanbul, Manifesta, Documenta, being just some. Thousands of art lovers and critics and artists and Venice lovers from all over the world converge on the water-logged city, planeload after planeload, private jets galore; and of course let us not forget the environmental impact of the transportation of the artworks themselves. To get to the Venice biennale, particularly in the stressful-sounding opening week when you just HAVE to be seen at all the parties, is arguably the hottest ticket in the art world's calendar. Millions of pounds gets pumped into these exhibitions, and the spectacular nature of the event is fueled by the stage within which it exists - Venice itself, cultural crossroads of the globe, steeped in centuries of cutting-edge art, architecture and historical significance. The media go wild. But it all feels a bit exclusive and elitist. Who really goes? What proportion of the world is actually helped by spending all this money and creating all these carbon emissions? Traditionally organised by national pavilions, the number of countries exhibiting this year is around 77,  many of which have no designated pavilion in which to exhibit. These are the later entrants to the art scene - forced to exhibit elsewhere in a spare palazzo in a far flung corner of Venice rather than in the coveted Giardini or Arsenale. Sometimes they end up lucky - the Comorros Islands, represented by Italian artist Paolo Tamburella (an old friend of mine from Rome incidentally), couldn't even get a patch on land to exhibit, but was allotted a patch of water - which is right next to the Giardini entrance. Paolo catches the eye of the visitor immediately drawing attention to their exclusion, with a crumbling Comorros old boat, banned by Comoros authorities in favour of modernisation - on which rests a modern cargo container. So the Comorros Islands get some attention. But what if all this money was instead spent on the poorer countries to help local artists and galleries? It might get spread around a little better. The jostling for exhibition space by competing nations, around Venice, just shows how significant these countries think it is to be included in the Venice Biennale, which demonstrates the globalisation of the art world in many ways. The Biennale's strength is that it breaks the dominance of the western European and American art scene so that we hear and see a more diverse range of voices, in turn bringing a new range of political, social and economic issues to the world's attention. But the negative is perhaps that it ain't cheap, and perhaps fosters gentrification, it is an industry like any other with certain political and economic imperatives, and of course my original point - the environmental impacts are gi-normous.
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