What do we mean when we speak of contemporary art and the art world? What does it mean to be a global artist? How do we think and act locally or globally? What is contemporaneity or the contemporary, and how is it used to categorize art? How do we, as artists and viewers, locate ourselves in terms of geography and history when we engage with art? We will address critical theories, artists, curators, and discourses around the biennial circuits and systems that constitute the global contemporary art world. We will consider historical examples, curatorial strategies and trends as well as new practices of engagement, and how these might reconfigure other modes of thinking about, making, and presenting art. This might include but are not limited to broader issues of human and civil rights, nationalism and internationalism, feminism, multiculturalism and ethnicity, borders, migration, and the current market forces.