There is no greater test of a curator than being artistic director of the Venice Biennale: 320,000 people attended the 114-year-old festival’s five-month run in 2007. This year’s edition, which runs from June 7 to November 22, is helmed by the Swedish-born Daniel Birnbaum, director of the Städelschule, in Frankfurt, and curator of the school’s exhibition space, Portikus. Sarah Douglas speaks with him about the anxiety of influence, ignoring the market and the necessity of walking around with ideas for shows in your head.

Is it daunting to be, at 45, the youngest artistic director in the history of the Biennale?

I haven’t given it a second thought. There have been presidents of the United States about my age, no?

Where did you get the title for the Biennale’s main exhibition, "Making Worlds"?

I came upon it in a rather beautiful book called Ways of World Making, by the American philosopher Nelson Goodman. The title is there to communicate an atmosphere rather than be too strict. The idea of "making’’ is about art in a studio, or a sort of laboratory environment — something very different from a museum.

Directors of the Biennale often disavow the market. Do you think about it?

Not too much. I’ve always been interested in things that aren’t so easily marketable, even though some of the artists who make them are very well known. Someone like John Baldessari, who is in the Biennale, was an inspiration for many generations before he had any kind of support in the market.

You’ve included a handful of artists from an older generation, like the German Pop artist Thomas Bayrle. Why?

The historical things are there because I think they are relevant for us now. It’s about how some of these artists’ ideas and ambitions are still alive.

Then you have a younger artist, Aleksandra Mir, who I understand is making postcards?

Yes. One million postcards. You can pick up as many as you want. They offer greetings from the Venice Biennale. She’s interested in different forms of distribution.

So in your Biennale we’ll see older figures’ works through the lens of new art?

Yes. They are not there only because they are sources of inspiration but because I think art is a continuous process of re-reading. Duchamp is another artist after Warhol. Cézanne is another artist after Picasso.

That approach comes out of literary theory.

It’s just as true for art. Maybe Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence should be required reading for art historians. Think about it. Isn’t Gordon Matta Clark a different artist after Rirkrit Tiravanija?

Both are in your Biennale, too. Will there be painting?

People always ask that question, "Will there be painting?’’ Of course there will. There’s a very lively painterly world in Italy, and there will be young Italian artists, like Pietro Roccasalva, who’s making paintings of an almost metaphysical ambition.

I understand you even think of Wolfgang Tillmans as a kind of painter?

That may be provocative of me, since he is a photographer. But some of the things he’s done recently are close to painting.

Is it difficult to pull so many things together in such a short time?

You have a year and a half, maximum. It’s very tough. If you are not doing international research already — if you don’t walk around with a few shows in your head — I don’t think you’re the right person for this.

Some people think art will get better in a recession. Do you?

There’s this idea that now everything bad is going to disappear — all the superfluous lifestyle- and money-oriented things. And, yes, I think those things will disappear, but so will many good things. And it’s certainly not easy for the Venice Biennale. We can install things and often ship them, but usually artists also get their own support.

From galleries?

Or from supporters and collectors. Not everything an artist does is produced by a museum. Not all of the financial support for the Biennale comes from our organization. It comes from all over, and that has become a lot harder for everyone.

Are you bracing yourself for the critical reception?

I’ve never experienced a love situation. I’ve written about many Venice Biennales, and I can say in retrospect that some of them were fantastic, now that I see how difficult it is to do something. Biennales are never loved, and that’s OK, because they are not there to be loved. They are there to be discussed.

So you’re prepared?

I shouldn’t say I don’t care if people write bad things. I will be happy if someone sees something I’ve managed to communicate, but I’m prepared that, with 5,000 accredited journalists, it will not be a love affair.

"Conversation with Daniel Birnbaum" originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2009 Table of Contents.