A great deal was at stake in the launch of Art TLV, a multifocal event aimed at raising awareness of Israel’s up-and-coming contemporary art scene and inserting Tel Aviv into the global biennial circuit. In 2009, this coastal city will join with Athens and Istanbul to form a “Mediterranean Triangle” of biennial destinations. With this in mind, the main exhibition for Art TLV, “Open Plan Living,” curated by the London-based Andrew Renton, was an attempt to define the city’s specificity in its regional context. As an inaugural gesture, Renton did well to draw upon the city’s Bauhaus legacy while