“Casino 2001: First Quadrennial of Contemporary Art” (the SMAK being housed in a former casino) was the kind of show where you think you know what to expect beforehand: the usual array of young artists, mainly from Western Europe and the United States and mainly from a certain network of galleries, curators, and art schools. However, it was such a poor example of this genre that it became an unintended assault on the whole system.

Curated by New York gallerist Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, “Casino 2001” included works by sixty artists, and the imbalance between chaff and wheat was extreme. Most of