The inaugural Singapore Biennale was held in 2006, and prominently enhanced Singapore as an international centre and regional thought-leader in the fields of contemporary visual arts. Organised by the National Arts Council (Singapore), the 72-day exhibition attracted more than 883,000 visitors from Singapore and travellers from all over the world. With 95 artists and artist collectives from 38 countries and regions, the diverse selection of artworks presented the best of both Asia and international art practices from Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

The 2006 Biennale provided an effective platform for people to exchange dialogue and share information & resources amongst the arts community from Singapore and the rest of the world. With the theme Belief, new platforms connecting different people were created, as audiences communicated and debated about art and life. The inclusion of a range of religious sites, historic buildings and other interesting locations as exhibition venues showed how Singapore celebrated harmony, unity and mutual respect among multiple ethnic groups.

While the success of the Biennale opened Singapore to the world, the exhibition generated significant positive feedback from the international media and art critics. Besides attaining 103,000,000 audience reach with more than 1,000 articles generated world-wide, the cumulative media value for print came up to be approximately $19,300,000, while the website generated over 1 million page views and unique visitors respectively. The overall tonality of media coverage was also highly favourable with strong, positive and fresh opinions formed and expressed.

Singapore Biennale 2008 will not just be another event for the art world, but one that engages all sectors of the society and people across different sectors as it continues to break new grounds for creative expressions.

For more information about SB2006, visit the official SB2006 website.