The four-member curatorial team of the São Paulo Biennial already hints at how comprehensive and borderless art is to be understood: Brazilian Diane Lima is a curator and researcher, Portuguese Grada Kilomba an author and interdisciplinary artist, Brazilian Hélio Menezes an anthropologist and curator, and Spaniard Manuel Borja-Villel an art historian and museum director. They acted as a team, explicitly without a chief curator, and thus gave a first example of their intention: To make the impossible possible. Choreographies of the Impossible is the title of the 35th São Paulo Biennial, which brings together 121 artists. Most of them come from the global South, which still receives too little attention, not only in the art world. The biennial's program will be on view from September 6 to December 10.
»The participants in this Bienal challenge the impossible in its most varied and incalculable forms. They live in impossible contexts, develop strategies of circumvention, cross limits, and escape from the impossibilities of the world in which they live. They deal with total violence, the impossibility of life in full freedom, inequalities, and their artistic expressions are transformed by the very impossibilities of our time«, the curatorial team said of the selection of participants.
The São Paulo Biennial was first held in 1951. Since 1957, it has welcomed its visitors in the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, named after the event's founder. The exhibition venue is located in the city park Parque do Ibirapuera, a cultural center of the city, where the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo is also located. The São Paulo Biennial is the second oldest and second most important art biennial in the world, after the Venice Biennale. Admission is free.
