'But the meaning in this year's great art exhibition lies primarily in the quality of the critical and cultural proposals. This very bold "check up" on contemporary art raises many questions. How do art forms react to the prevailing globalization of languages? Has contemporary art simply echoed the process of economic, financial, commercial and technological integration, albeit in ironic and detached ways? Or does it attempt to criticize and question this process?...There is no easy answer to these kind of questions. Twentieth century art has reacted in various ways to the "informationization" of languages, their reduction to pure means of communicating information...Has the world of so-called "art" become a single game, in which the moves are increasingly predictable and absolutely "de-territorialized", with no genius loci and in which every surprise is not by "chance", insofar as already implicit in the calculation, intrinsic to the combinatory technique governing the whole? Thanks to its vast "planetary" scope, this year the Biennale can help to develop these issues concerning the broadest cultural, social, and political dimension of contemporary art.' - Massimo Cacciari, Mayor of Venice. Included in this catalogue are essays on participating artists as well as artists' biographies.