Master’s thesis Urban Studies and Planning The role of Helsinki contemporary art biennial in placemaking and city branding. An interdisciplinary study on the establishment of a new cultural event. Barbara Radaelli-Muuronen 2019 Supervisors: Maaria Linko, Anssi Joutsiniemi MASTER’S PROGRAMME IN URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING FACULTY OF ARTS Tiedekunta – Fakultet – Faculty Osasto – Institution – Department Faculty of Arts Urban Studies and Planning Tekijä – Författare – Author Barbara Radaelli-Muuronen Tutkielman otsikko – Avhandlings titel – Title of thesis The role of Helsinki contemporary art biennial in placemaking and city branding.An interdisciplinary study on the establishment of a new cultural event. Koulutusohjelma – Utbildningsprogram – Programme Master’s programme in urban studies and planning Tutkielman taso – Avhandlings nivå – Level of the Aika – Datum – Date Sivumäärä – Sidoantal – Number of pages thesis Master’s thesis 21 th of May 2019 60 + 1 appendixes Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract In current city policies, cultural events take part in urban, social and economic development contributing in place making and city branding. This master thesis examines the role of the forthcoming Helsinki contemporary art biennial within the city strategies to fulfill social, economic and environmentally sustainable development. The vision of the city of Helsinki is to be the world’s most functional city, creating the best conditions for residents and visitors as well as an attractive knowledge hub for companies and individuals. The potential of achieving some of the strategies’ objectives through the contemporary art biennial is analyzed through interviews with experts of Helsinki Art Museum and benchmarking the city of Helsinki with other long-term biennial cities, specifically, Venice, Berlin and Liverpool. For the benchmarking, it has been used data provided by the European Commission’s on line platform “Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor”. Helsinki biennial takes part in the place-making, city branding as well as in the strategic plan for the city. Overall, the event is efficiently related to most of the objectives of the city strategies, of which the maritime strategy, the project for youth social inclusion, exercise and mobility, health and welfare promotion. The convergent outputs of the analysis of Helsinki provided positive scenarios on the creation of new jobs within the creative economy and revealed that human capital and education sectors might undertake a significant increase. Yet, a broad overview on the strategies for the city of Helsinki 2017-2021 revealed contrasting aspects within the sustainable development principles. The new jobs created through the maritime strategy seem not completely fulfill the ambitious aims of the city strategies to create new captivating jobs through new companies and startups. Furthermore, in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, environmentally sustainable alternatives for the Biennial in the island of Vallisaari should be carefully considered. Avainsanat – Nyckelord – Keywords contemporary art, biennial, city strategies, city branding, cultural and creative cities monitor, sustainability Säilytyspaikka – Förvaringställe – Where deposited University of Helsinki electronic theses library E-thesis/HELDA Muita tietoja – Övriga uppgifter – Additional information ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank my master thesis seminar advisor Prof. Matti Kortteinen for his opinions and contribution throughout the process of writing the thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank Helsinki Art Museum managers and curators of the forthcoming Helsinki Contemporary Art Biennial for their support and for providing me with information needed for this thesis. Table of Contents 1.Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1. Background and context .................................................................................................. 2 1.2. Research objective and question ...................................................................................... 3 1.3. Relevance of the topic ..................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Case Study on Helsinki Contemporary Art Biennial........................................................ 5 2. The role of contemporary art biennials in placemaking and city branding ......................................... 9 2.1 Literature review ............................................................................................................. 12 2.1.1. Biennial, definition of the term and aims ............................................................................ 15 2.1.2 Biennalization ....................................................................................................................... 16 2.1.3 The topic of sustainable development as a concern in recent biennials ............................... 17 2.2 Benchmarking Venice, Berlin and Liverpool biennials ................................................. 19 2.2.1. “La Biennale” in Venice ...................................................................................................... 19 2.2.2.“BB” in Berlin ...................................................................................................................... 25 2.2.3 “LB” in Liverpool ................................................................................................................ 30 3. The establishment of Helsinki Contemporary Art Biennial as part of the City Strategies ................ 37 3.1 Helsinki City Strategy 2017-2021 as the Most Functional City in the World ............... 37 3.2. The role of Helsinki Contemporary Art Biennial within the Helsinki City Strategies. 41 3.3 The Role of HAM in establishing, managing and curating Helsinki Biennial ........................ 42 4. Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 44 4.1. A qualitative study complemented by quantitative data ................................................ 45 4.2. Interviews ...................................................................................................................... 45 4.3. Data analysis .................................................................................................................. 46 4.3.1. Analysis of the interviews ................................................................................................... 46 4.3.2 Analysis of the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor Data .................................................. 50 4.4. Validity and reliability ................................................................................................... 52 5. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 53 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................. 57 APPENDIX 1. Interview questions .................................................................................................. 61 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The 17 Sustainable Development Goals at the heart of UN 2030 Agenda. Source: UN, 2016……….17 Figure 2: Installation Support by artist Lorenzo Quinn. Source: Lorenzo Quinn, 2017………………………..20 Figure 3: A giant cruise ship arriving in Venice. Source: Andrea Pattaro/AFP/GettyImages, 2017…………...20 Figure 4: Map of Helsinki Biennial 2020 in Vallisaari…………………………………………………………35 Figure 5: Map of Venice biennial 2017 venues……………………………………………...…………………35 Figure 6: Map of Berlin biennial 2018 Venues…………………………………………………………………36 Figure 7: Map of Liverpool biennial 2018 Venues……………………………………………………..………36 LIST OF CHARTS Benchmark of Helsinki, Venice, Berlin and Liverpool Chart 1: Cultural vibrancy. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM…………………………………..…...21 Chart 2: Satisfaction with cultural facilities Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM……………………...21 Chart 3: Museums. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM………………………………………..……...22 Chart 4: Museum visitors. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM……………………………………..…22 Chart 5: Graduates in art and humanities. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub/CCCM…………………….......22 Chart 6: Foreign graduates. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub…………………………………………...…...22 Chart 7: Cultural participation and attractiveness. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub/CCCM……………......25 Chart 8: Creative and knowledge-based workers. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub/CCCM………………...26 Chart 9: New jobs in creative sectors. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM………………....................26 Chart 10: Jobs in new arts. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM…………………………………….....26 Chart 11: Jobs in new arts and communication enterprises. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM……..27 Chart 12: Jobs in new enterprises in other creative sectors. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM…......27 Chart 13: Jobs in arts, culture and entertainment. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM……………......27 Chart 14: Jobs in media and communication. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM………………....…27 Chart 15: Jobs in other creative sectors. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM…………………………28 Chart 16: Human capital and education. Data source: JRC EU Science Hub /CCCM……………………..….28 Chart 17: Enabling environment total scores.