Have the Biennale team learnt anything that could prepare them to have everything ready next time?
 
The problem with the Biennale is that it is very young and it is hard to learn, because in our staff there was only one secretary who was part of the first Biennale. So essentially we have now had the first Biennale twice.
 
And the other related problem is that of a building. We only exist as a very small organisation for most of the time, and then suddenly when the time comes, we have many people involved in the organisation. The real problem is that we have no permanent location. For the Biennale we need to have an infrastructure that we can be linked to for 5 weeks. 
 
Now we were busy for more than a year and a half, which is very long, to establish the exhibition in Las Palmas, and even two weeks ago we didn't have building permission for the entrance stairs. And we spent one third of our budget on climate installations and temporary infrastructure for this building. So our budget was ruined. So for a future Biennale there can be only one solution. We have to establish a staff that survives every two years, and secondly there needs to be a more durable solution where we are able to use facilities and infrastructure which is already built. Otherwise we are running in circles, which is ridiculous. Work for the Biennale is far too serious.
 
As the curator of Three Bays and Water Cities, what have been the highlights of your experience?
 
For the Biennale it was very important, in addition to the Polders exhibition at the NAI, that there should be the possibility to link to an international scope, otherwise it could never be a Biennale. You can't invite the world, and then show only the Dutch polders. Then it's not a Biennale, it's an exhibition on Dutch polders.
 
It was very important to have a definition of who was our audience. Of course, the audience is people who usually attend architectural biennales, but on top of that we included the Dutch real estate market as a very serious participant, and the general public. We have an open day at which entry to all the exhibitions will be free, and this will attract a lot of people - local people and tourists from the rest of the Netherlands.
 
We wanted to have a smaller Biennale with very serious content which could result in a deeper debate. Then the things which were experienced here could be taken back to other countries, and not as a sort of window-dressing, but as a better understanding. And after these last two days, I am already quite happy about the debate of Mare Nostrum. Because with Mare Nostrum, I felt that some of the participants will go home and bring part of this debate to their own society.
 
With the developing countries, they will never enter a biennale on their own. You have to help them and give them the tickets and the space. And don't ask difficult questions, because they might not have the best presentations, but that is not relevant. Come and speak and tell the story, and speculate.
 
What is very striking is that I was asked to send the whole exhibition of 'Water Cities' to Japan, and to Taiwan; an extended version of 'Three Bays' has been invited to Tokyo and Venice; and 'Mare Nostrum' has been asked to appear in Miami. So there is a ridiculous situation, that today already we have five requests to extend the content of these shows abroad. I'm a little bit overwhelmed, because I wasn't expecting this! But I think that to have an extension of 'Mare Nostrum' on a circuit that is part of what we brought together here, is very relevant.

And some of the leading players in the Dutch tourist industry (present at the Mare Nostrum conference) were almost shocked at what we presented. They weren't expecting it. We didn't either! And these people feel a bit sorry that they weren't part of it, and want to be sure that they digest what was figured out at the Biennale. So now there is a real indication of bringing the winners of the Biennale's Best Entries to the annual business conference of the Dutch tourist industry this year, which includes KLM, Air France, easyJet and Hilton. So I am very impressed with that.

The other thing is that, at this stage, we can't compare with the biennales in Sao Paulo or Venice, or the triennale in Milan, which are magnets for architects and students. This Biennale is just starting and we are still far from that, in numbers anyway. When I was asked to be curator, I decided that I wanted to work on real content rather than have a big festival. If you do this five or six times, then you gain a prestige. You have to build your reputation with your own hands. You can't buy it. And in this way I think that this Biennale already fits.