BiennaleOnline, which claims to be the first art biennial taking place entirely on the Internet, has just released its inaugural list of artists. In total, 180 will take part in this first edition, which will officially open on April 26, 2013.

This new venture is part of the art world’s increasing use of the digital space. With various sorts of art commerce sites making headlines, it seems logical that a non-selling, biennial-type of event should follow suit. BiennaleOnline’s founders David Dehaeck and Nathalie Haveman identified the niche and launched the umbrella organization responsible for the biennial, ART+, in 2012.

BiennaleOnline hopes to distinguiss itself by its very high-profile curatorial team. Among the 30 curators who helped pick this year’s participants are such heavy-hitters are deputy director of New York’s Jewish Museum Jens Hoffman, theSerpentine Gallery’s director of exhibitions Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Moderna Museet director Daniel Birnbaum, as well as independent curators Adriano Pedrosa and Catherine David. Each curator selected five artists, one for each category — photography, new media, installation, performance, and traditional media (painting, drawing, sculpture) — and had to include at least two from their own country.

The BiennaleOnline focuses on emerging art and gathers such rising stars as Ed Atkins, Michael Dean, Nina Canell, and Sophie Bueno Boutellier. More established figures like the Lebanese artist Tony Chakar and Icelandic star Ragnar Kjartansson will also take part.

The whole operation is given an extra layer of seriousness by its artistic director Jan Hoet. The Documenta IX curator and founder of SMAK in Ghent is responsible for putting together a separate online exhibition as part of the show, which will include 25 artists and be entitled “Reflection and Imagination.” “Great contemporary art is the sum of reflection and imagination,” commented Hoet. “The artist adds his or her personal vision to history and the memory of history. I hope this combination of factors will be present in every single work in this biennale. In this way we’ll come to a new world and new art.”

The BiennaleOnline’s preview is slated for April 19 for visitors ready to shell out $80 to log on, and will continue until April 25. Admission rates will drop to $10 thereafter. The biennial will remain accessible online until October 14, and the artists will share 30 percent of the ticket sales revenue.

Full List of Artists

Meriç Algün

Ringborg Edgardob Aragon

Francesco Arena

Marcela Armas

Ed Atkins

Niclas Bacal

Guy Bar Amotz

Wojciech Bąkowski

Eduardo Basualdo

Stefania Batoeva

Atul Bhalla

Beni Bischof

Rossella Biscotti

Lucas Blalock

Katinka Bock

Gwenneth Boelens

Thomas Bogaert

Pawet Bownik

Veronica Brovall

Michal Budny

Sophie Bueno Boutellier

Giuseppe Campuzano

Nina Canell

Francesco Cavaliere

Tony Chakar

Rosa Chancho

Alejandro Chaskielberg

Jeanette Chávez

Chieh-Jen Chen

Wei Chen

Paolo Chiasera

Vaast Colson

Sarah Conoway

Michael Dean

Koenraad Dedobbeleer

Raphaëlle de Groot

Edith Dekyndt

Virginia De Medeiros

Liz Deschenes

Jessica Dickinson

Aleksandra Domanovic

Eitan Efrat

Nezaket Ekici

Charlie Engman

Ruth Ewan

Sirah Foighel Brutmann

Linda Fregni

Nagler Leyla Gediz

Mariam Ghani

Babak Golkar

Kristin Grey Apple

Meta Grgurevič

Osang Gwon

Hadley+Maxwell

Petrit Halilaj

Susan Hefuna

Thomas Helbig

Calle Holck

Jonathan Horowitz

Vlatka Horvat

Carlos Irijalba

Fritzia Irizar

Sarah Anne Johnson

Zin Ki Jong

Regina José Galindo

Leja Jurišič

Nikita Kadan

Franka Kassner

Ragnar Kjartansson

Thomas Kratz

Sheung-Chi Kwan

Olivier Laric

Guillaume Leblon

Changwon Lee

Sojung Lee

Yeesookyung

Gauthier Leroy

Ellen Lesperance

Hanna Lidén

Shiga Lieko

Minouk Lim

Ryan Lobo

Jarbas Lopes

Nicola Lopez

Maider Lopez

Desire Machine Collective

Kevin Mancera

Luiza Margan

Taus Makhacheva

Maria Marshall

Hiroyuki Masuyama

Manuel Mathar

Mediengruppe Bitnik

Wesley Meuris

Maro Michalakakos

Mikael Mikael

Adrien Missika

Marge Monko

Ivan Moudov

Carter Mull

Marina Naprushkina

Otobong Nkanga

Uri Nir Navid Nuur

Christine Ödlund

Ahmet Ogut

Teatro Ojo

Nikolay Oleynikov

Daniela Ortiz

Sener Özmen

Amilkar Packer

Anna Parkina

Slawomir Pawszak

Kiko Perez

Dulce Pinzón

Falke Pisano

Frédéric Platéus

Sharon Poliakin

Paloma Polo

Agnieszka Polska

Nicolas Provost

Michael+Florian Quistrebert

Shiming Qiu

Timofey Radya

Camila Ramirez

Lucy Raven

Teja Reba

Mandla Reuter

Beau Rhee

James Richards

Evariste Richer

Rubedo

Analia Saban

Jeremy Shaw

Praneet Soi

Julia Spinola

Corin Sworn

Alberto Tadiello

Pilva Takala

L.N. Tallur

Zin Taylor

Angelica Teuta

James T. Hong

Clarissa Tossin

Katerina Undo

Ignacio Uriarte

Joris van de Moortel

Jan van Imschoot

Stela Vasileva

Yvonne Venegas

Ben Vickers

Vincent Vulsma

Suse Weber

Pavel Wolberg

Zorka Wollny

Chung-Yu Wong

Wai-Yin Wong

Jui-Chung Yao

Samira Yamin

Xiang Yang

Weili Yeh

Masha Yozefpolsky

Cheng-Ta Yu

Tobias Zielony