The collectors are also more than ready for the list of artists present in a Biennial or a Documenta. In order to avoid speculation, the curator of Documenta X in 1997, Catherine David, refused to give away the secret of who her artists were until the fi rst private viewing. “A list is not an exhibition, it doesn’t reveal much,” she states.

“If people wanted it, it was solely part of the game to speculate. Besides, an exhibition is not a horse show. I wanted to show that Documenta was not a fairground.”

This firmness inspired others to follow suit, at the risk of taking on an affected manner. Certain tenures of national pavilions refuse even to let their project be known in the preamble. This is the case of Liam Gillick, artist this year of the German Pavilion, or of Steve McQueen, the artist of the British Pavilion.

In chasing the natural, it comes back at pace! The walls erected between art and the market-place often crack; the Venice Biennial offers collectors the chance to borrow works of art fresh from the artists’ studios. “Since the market-place took off in 2001, the Biennial has become more of a stop-over for the consumption of art. The very fact that ambitious projects are produced by galleries explains also that the works of art are there to be sold,” observes a trader. In 1999, the gallery Continua parted with an installation by the Chinese artist Chen Zhen, on show in the Arsenale, to the Annie Wong Foundation for Art, while the collector Martin Z. Margulies was taken aback by an installation perfumed with spices by Ernesto Neto. The mercurial went well in 2003 for the French Pavilion given to the artist Jean- Marc Bustamante. The same year, the broker Philippe Ségalot bought the piece Charlie (2003) by Maurizio Cattelan for the collector François Pinault. In 2007, he had also acquired, bidding against five museums including the MOMA in New York, the nine major paintings by Sigmar Polke exhibited at the International Pavilion (“The Axis of Time” series). For their part, the American collectors Don and Mera Rubell had acquired in 1992, on the occasion of Documenta, a great sculpture of Charles Ray entitled Oh, Charley, Charley, Charley (1992). The impact of a national pavilion varies according fi rst to the age and degree of fame of an artist. The career of the American Ed Ruscha was already established before his performance in 2005, just like Bruce Nauman, who is the focus this year of the American Pavilion. The Biennale is just another line on their CV. “In the past, the pavilion allowed for the end of a career. In the case of Liam Gillick, who is one of the youngest artists to have a pavilion, it will give a certain sense of history,” explains Florence Bonnefous, from the gallery Air de Paris. “I could not say what the actual impact will be in a year. All that assures me is that, for the moment, Liam has not changed. It was a risk because this type of event can make anybody arrogant.”

The seal of approval ‘Seen at Venice’ benefits above all the artists whose galleries exhibit at Basel Art Fair. This was the case with Tatiana Trouvé, present at the 2007 Venice Biennale, in the general exhibition of the Arsenale, and at Basel, in the section “Art Unlimited.” This is also the case for Nathalie Djurberg, who won a prize this year in Venice and was at the same time shown in the “Art Unlimited” section of Art Basel.

“When two years ago we had Joshua Mosley in the International Pavilion, it was a huge success,” confides the Chicago dealer Donald Young. “The Museum of Isreal, LVMH and the MOMA bought there. Furthermore, I can confirm that in a very active market, there is more action before a Biennial than during or after. I will never be able to explain why.” ‘The Venice effect’ sometimes changes the prices of the artists, at least in the short term. After selling for $145,000 to an Australian museum the video in triprojection of the AES+F collective, visible in the Russian Pavilion in 2007, the Turin gallery owner Marco Noire demanded $250,000 for another video to be presented in Basel. However, a presence at the Venice Biennale isn’t a guarantee of life-long notoriety. The former catalogues of this event are full of names which have mostly fallen into oblivion. When one edition is too full of artists, the ones towards the end run the risk of being drowned out by the deluge. Equally, when the performance of an artist is slated, the Biennale dampens the enthusiasm of the collectors and the institutions.

(Translated from French by Gianfranco Rosolia)