Brussels Biennial 1 is organized under the conceptual umbrella devised by its artistic director, Barbara Vanderlinden in an attempt to rethink the legacy of modernity in a global context. The individual exhibitions are curated by the contemporay art organizations: B.P.S.22, espace de création contemporaine de la Province de Hainaut, Charleroi (Space for Contemporary Creation of the Visual Arts sector of the Hainaut Province); BAK, basis voor actuele kunst (Basis for Contemporary Art), Utrecht; Drik, Images, Communication & Information Technology, Dhaka; Extra City, Centrum voor Hedendaagse Kunst (Center for Contemporary Art), Antwerp; L’appartement 22, Lieu Indé;pendant pour la Création Contemporaine (The Apartment 22, Experimental Space for Contemporary Art), Rabat; MuHKA, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp), Antwerpen; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and Witte de With, Centrum voor Hedendaagse Kunst (Center for Contemporary Art), Rotterdam.

Participating curators: Shahidul Alam, Bart De Baere, Charles Esche and Mária Hlavajová, Anselm Franke, Abdellah Karroum, Pierre-Olivier Rollin, Nicolaus Schafhausen and Florian Waldvogel.