Biennale is Italian for “every other year” and can be used to describe any event that happens every two years. It is most commonly used within the art world to describe an international manifestation of contemporary art, stemming from the use of the phrase for the Venice Biennale, which was first held in 1895 (the phrase has since been used for multiple events, as the “Biennale de Paris”, or even as a portmanteau as with Berlinale for the Berlin International Film Festival).
