Europe's Super Summer of Art(Part One)

Every 10 years, the planets in the art world align to create a social solar-eclipse. Next week, artists, critics, curators, collectors and artistic stargazers will embark on a pilgrimage across Europe as four of the world's most high-profile events combine through serendipitous timing. For the first time in a decade, between 10 and 17 June, three major contemporary art exhibitions and the world's leading art fair will throw open their doors.

This year, the annual art fair at Basel, Switzerland, and the 52nd Venice Biennale, held every other year,coincide with the prestigious German shows of Documenta, in Kassel, held every five years, and Sculpture Projects in Münster, held every 10. The events' organisers, including Professor Robert Storr, director of this year's Venice Biennale, have embraced this coincidence. Professor Storr said: "The art world no longer has a single centre. It's truly international now."

Those behind the events have collaborated on a website, www.grandtour2007.com, to help co-ordinate the movements of arts professionals. The site markets itself as a gateway to a 21st-century version of the Grand Tour - the 18th-century tradition of wealthy men and women travelling across the Continent to feast upon high culture and network with the similarly rich.

Unfortunately, for the average art aficionado, this modern quartet of events is similarly financially exclusive. Although in principle it is open to everyone, in practice the tour caters almost exclusively for the wealthy. The cheapest works at Basel are likely to sell for about £1,000, and these are snapped up quickly. And although the other events offer dealers a unique opportunity to promote their artists, they are, officially, at least, not supposed to involve transactions. In the present-day art world, the über-wealthy fly by private jet between cities, and those lacking cash have to "make do" with high-speed trains or conventional flights.

The modern Grand Tour kicks off tomorrow, when the Venice Biennale, the art world's equivalent to the Oscars, officially opens. The event, founded in 1895 and continuing this year until 21 November, is principally based at the Arsenale, the old shipyards east of Venice, and in the Giardini, the city's public gardens. Here the 77 countries represented this year will showcase their work. The event, by far the most publicly accessible of the four, has already courted controversy after previews began last week.

The other three arts events cater for more niche audiences. While Basel is likely to appeal to aggressive collectors, laid-back art enthusiasts will find more to interest them at Documenta and Sculpture Projects. Basel, the world's prime contemporary art fair, is reached by the super-rich from Italy by plane to Zurich followed by a high-speed train ride to the Rhine. It is a trade show running from 13 to 17 June for 300 major galleries from 30 countries, all crammed inside a colossal exhibition centre.

The event will be a battleground for the voracious buyers emerging from India, China and Russia. In contrast, Documenta, which kicks off from 16 June until 23 September, is more downbeat and mysterious. In a similar vein is Sculpture Projects, running from 17 June in Münster. Here Michael Asher and Bruce Nauman are among the 36 artists represented, as the exhibition transforms the city into an art gallery by employing site-specific installations around the streets. All of which is enough to make massed ranks of the arts fraternity bleary eyed.

Münster Sculpture Projects (17 JUNE-30 SEPTEMBER)

Frequency: Once a decade.

The venue: Works will be dotted around the city's streets, mainly around the Domplatz, or main, cathedral square.

What's there: The work of 36 artists, showing site-specific work around Münster's streets and squares.

Who's showing: Michael Asher, who showed at the first Sculpture Projects in 1977, is among those represented. Also featured are the German conceptual artist Rosemarie Trockel and the Turner Prize-winning Brit Jeremy Deller, above right. The work will be accompanied by a programme of lectures, readings, films, and staged conversations.

Who's going: The same collection of curators and artists, especially those keen to hire a bicycle to explore the city.

Key figures: Curators Brigitte Franzen, Carina Plath and Kasper König.
Previous highlights: Los Angeles-born Michael Asher's caravan was shown in the three previous "editions" of the event. The same model is set to tour this latest exhibition in a publicity-hungry ploy to "cause irritation" according to its organisers. Meanwhile, Nauman's Square Depression, left, a sculpture resembling a city square, which he created for the 1977 exhibition but was never finished at the time, will go on show this summer.

This year's highlights: The 2007 Turner Prize nominee Mark Wallinger is set to establish a "demarcation zone" through the city by hanging a fishing line along a circular route. The work looks at "the phenomenon of the ghetto".

Practicalities: Münster has an airport and is reachable by train from major German cities. Trains linking Münster and Kassel take two hours. Entry is free.