The Venice Biennale international art exhibition has become more than just a showcase of artistic talents for many countries. The number of participating places has gone up to 89 this year, compared to 58 in 1997. There are 44 collateral events, including exhibitions revolving around themes in response to this year's curatorial theme "All the World's Futures" by biennale curator Okwui Enwezor.

Many Asian players have been upping their game in recent years in what is widely known as the international art Olympics through public funding in a bid to export their soft power.

Hong Kong, for example, has doubled its exhibition budget to around HK$10 million since the last biennial in 2013 as the Arts Development Council and the West Kowloon visual culture museum M+ joined forces to beef up the city's presentation, with M+ taking the curatorial lead.

Singapore makes a return this year after signing a 20-year lease for a space at the Arsenale, where the main exhibition takes place. Taiwan amended its strategy to replace a group show with a solo exhibition. The Philippines is making a bold return to Venice for the first time after a 51-year absence. Many other Asian countries such as Thailand and Indonesia are also presenting shows.

Asian artists on show are also earning much greater international exposure, with some already catching the attention of big-name international institutions, galleries and curators. They are being invited to stage exhibitions and take part in other biennials or collaborations.

"The advent of art fairs in Asia over the last 10 years and building on the long-standing Asia-Pacific Triennial in Brisbane and newer art biennials in China, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore mean that art professionals in all these countries and government officials now understand the marketing value of all biennials," says John Batten, president of the International Association of Art Critics Hong Kong.

"Going to Venice is now on the agenda for these same countries. Asian countries are just now joining this big Venice art opportunity."

For Taiwan, showing up in Venice is more than just about art. Fang Mei-ching, chief curator of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, which is organising the Taiwan exhibition, says the biennial is not only great encouragement for Taiwanese artists. She says the opportunity to participate in international events is precious to Taiwan as it helps maintain the island's presence on the world stage.

"Making it to an international platform is very important to us, and it helps people to get to know about Taiwan," says Fang.

Fang says the cost of the Taiwan exhibition has been borne by the museum, which receives funding from the culture bureau and the foreign office. She says the budget has gone up 30 to 40 per cent over the past 10 years - a strong indicator of Taiwan's desire to make an impact at the event, even though it is spending less than Hong Kong.

Fang says for the first time the museum decided to show one artist instead of a group show in order to maximise the impact, as the messages of artworks by various artists tend to get lost and buried in a group show. An international publicist was also hired for the first time to promote the exhibition.

She agrees that Asia has increasingly understood the importance of exhibiting in Venice, and the concern is not just about art. "Culture is very important for outsiders to get to know a city or a country," she says.

Singapore returns after a gap year, and is showcasing Charles Lim's solo show Sea State, an exhibition characterised by a series of moving image works telling stories of the sea and the coastline that feeds the life of Singapore.

"The water temperature in Singapore is the same as our blood," says Lim, who demonstrates his sailing skills as a former professional sailor in one of the video works. "The sea is not a barrier. It's not a place where you will die. The sea is actually where life will be sustained."

Paul Tan, deputy chief executive officer of Singapore's National Arts Council, says Singapore reviewed its strategy in Venice and decided to commit to a permanent spot rather than being nomadic as in previous years. He declines to reveal how much he is paying for the spot, but the Sea State exhibition is costing more than S$1 million (HK$5.8 million), the most expensive show Singapore has ever staged at the biennale.

The council also commissioned a symposium on art and Southeast Asia during the opening weekend.

"It's an important signal to the community," says Tan. "It sends a signal that Singapore is serious about this. Participation at the Venice Biennale is what we are committed to. It is a long-term investment by the state."

He says the move is important for artists as they know the nature of the exhibition space. "It is important to our artists to connect to the world … to launch their international careers, connect with institutions, collectors and even the media."

Singapore has been actively cultivating its local art scene as part of its national agenda. The opening of the National Gallery in October, together with the Gilman Barracks gallery cluster, the Art Stage fair and the Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, is part of this process. But Singapore has yet to make a major impact in art exports, says Tan.

He agrees that there has been criticism of the national pavilion model, but he says more Asian countries are now participating. He says being in Venice allows Singapore to be plugged in to the European art world, and in a way to introduce Singapore to a new audience. He notes that one Western visitor to the pavilion had never heard of Singapore.

Doryun Chong, chief curator of M+ and one of the curators of the Hong Kong exhibition, Tsang Kin-wah's The Infinite Nothing, agrees that Asian countries have been pumping more resources into their Venice exhibitions and participation has become a form of diplomacy.

"There are simply more Asian pavilions and exhibitions than 10 years ago. It's like an expo," says Chong. "All these pavilions try to showcase their own countries and their art. That's the model, and that's the model that people have been criticising as a very 20th century UN model. This criticism has been going on for 20 years, but more and more countries are still participating."

But Chong doesn't see it as rivalry among different places. He views this as a result of a growing contemporary art community that attracts more and more players hoping to take part in events - albeit with taxpayer money.

"Each is keen to promote his or her own country. But it's not about my artist being better than yours. It's about sharing in a larger and more visible platform."

Although many argue that art should be free from the constraints of national boundaries, there is no denying the nationality of the artists on show. "At the end of the day, you still carry a passport. You might have a certain view of the country that you come from. An individual might have multiple identities. But art allows you to talk about these complexities," says Singapore's Tan.

Although the presentations are government-funded, not every artist feels that he or she is burdened by the responsibility to represent a hometown. Unlike Taiwan's Wu, Hong Kong's Tsang and Singapore's Lim do not share the idea that they are talking about their local identities through their works.

"As an artist, if your work is good enough, people will pay attention to you and they will be interested in where you come from. Of course you can try to put yourself on the map," says Tsang. "Perhaps Wu has a bigger mission and I respect that. But to me, it is not necessary to have this kind of mission."

"I don't know what is 'Hongkongness', or what represents Hong Kong," Tsang says. "Certainly some people who have viewed Hong Kong exhibitions got an impression of the works that Hong Kong artists do. But people should be able to notice the diversity of our works. Perhaps you can argue that people can see the multifaceted side of Hong Kong."

Wu, on the other hand, is persistent about presenting a different side of Taiwan through his digital-based works that speak to an international audience.

"We have high expectations, because we had 20 years of experience but the international world still doesn't have a clear idea about Taiwan's contemporary art. We want to show that Taiwan has its own cultural characteristics," says Wu.