Mediating spaces: some considerations on the spaces of large-scale art exhibitions

Large-scale temporary art exhibitions such as biennials present special characteristics which in turn illuminate broader questions of art practice, curatorship and cultural management, as well as cultural and social affect. This article considers the third Berlin biennale for contemporary art, focusing its initial discussion on questions of exhibition space including 'hub' forms that attempt to break from conventional 'art-viewing' practices. The article further considers the relationship of specific exhibition sites with prior social, cultural and economic histories to the reception of art, inquiring what is at stake in the semiological management of 'sites of representation', with particular focus on three Berlin locations. Contrasting 'neo-liberal' approaches to large exhibitions structured as commodities in major sites such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris or London's Tate Modern, with less consumerist and more participative approaches, the analysis considers alternatives to current practice on the part of cultural managers and curators, and debates what is at stake for cultural politics in developing modes of art practice and exhibition.