Countering the trend for big exhibitions to be as global as possible, the Fourth Singapore Biennale took the unusual step of restricting its curatorial reach to Southeast Asia, with a smattering of artists from South Korea, Japan, and Australia. The result was, as one gallerist put it, “a no-name biennial”—a show without the stars of the international circuit but ostensibly bearing fresh news. In addition, this biennial must have achieved some kind of a record by involving no fewer than twenty-seven curators from around the region without an artistic director to oversee them. They might

“I believe it was God’s will that we should come back, so that men might know the things that are in the world,” Marco Polo claims in the preface to The Description of the World, a chronicle of his journey through Persia and the Caucasus to China. Whether or not the Venetian merchant ever uttered these words—or, for that matter, even ever set foot in China—can no longer be known. His tales were first transcribed in prison by Polo’s cell mate, the romance writer Rustichello of Pisa. These original manuscripts would soon disappear, but tales of Polo’s adventures would circulate throughout