{"id":4141,"date":"2025-04-19T13:14:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T13:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/19\/the-36th-sao-paulo-bienal-reimagines-humanity-as-practice\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T13:14:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T13:14:45","slug":"the-36th-sao-paulo-bienal-reimagines-humanity-as-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/19\/the-36th-sao-paulo-bienal-reimagines-humanity-as-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"The 36th S\u00e3o Paulo Bienal Reimagines Humanity as Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The conceptual team for the 36th Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo (l. to r.): Keyna Eleison, Alya Sebti, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Henriette Gallus, Anna Roberta Goetz and Thiago de Paula Souza. \u00a9 Jo\u00e3o Medeiros \/ Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Venice, the Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo is one of the world\u2019s oldest and most influential biennials. Since its launch in 1951, it has served as a key engine for the transformation, consolidation and internationalization of the art scene in Brazil and across South America. Opening this year on September 6 and running through January 11, 2026, the 36th edition promises to be one for the books. Titled \u201cNem todo andante anda estradas \/ Da humanidade como pr\u00e1tica\u201d (\u201cNot All Travellers Walk Roads \/ Of Humanity as Practice\u201d), the event will reframe humanity as an ever-evolving living practice in a world that requires constantly reimagining relationships, confronting asymmetries and conflicts and exploring alternative forms of coexistence between beings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe theme is broad\u2014it\u2019s about questioning the very notion of humanity,\u201d curator Paula Souza<\/a>” class=”company-link”>Thiago de Paula Souza told Observer during a busy S\u00e3o Paulo Art Week. \u201cHow does one become human? How does one exercise and practice humanity? And if humanity were a verb, how would we conjugate it?\u201d<\/p>\n

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SEE ALSO: <\/i><\/b>SP\u2013Arte Founder Fernanda Feitosa Reflects On Brazil\u2019s Lasting Cultural and Artistic Momentum<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

De Paula Souza is part of a diverse conceptual team led by chief curator Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung<\/a>, working alongside co-curators Alya Sebti<\/a>, Anna Roberta Goetz<\/a> and Paula Souza, with Keyna Eleison<\/a> as co-curator-at-large and Henriette Gallus<\/a> advising on strategy and communication. This polyphonic curatorial model offers a wide plurality of perspectives. \u201cWe followed research paths that mirrored the migratory routes of birds\u2014how they navigate the globe with the seasons,\u201d de Paula Souza said. This method underpins a globally cohesive but deeply multicultural vision while actively avoiding what he calls the \u201ccommodification of identities,\u201d a trend that has saturated the contemporary art world in recent years. Artists were selected not for tokenist markers of identity but for the conceptual and poetic force of their work: \u201cWe\u2019re interested in how different subjectivities expand our understanding of what it means to be human\u2014how communities imagine and embody human presence on this planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cInvocations\u201d in Guadalupe featured a Gwoka dance performance by Raymonde Torin, based on the seven fundamental Gwoka dances.<\/span> \u00a9 Philippe Hurgon – Fundac\u0327a\u0303o Bienal de Sa\u0303o Paulo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Conceiving a biennial with this broad a scope comes with challenges. \u201cEven if you can come up with a very strong and complex curatorial concept, it is still important that it be able to speak to a broader audience,\u201d said de Paula Souza, noting how deeply embedded the biennial is in the civic fabric of Brazil. The Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo is very popular\u2014Brazilian people from widely different backgrounds participate in it and it\u2019s one of the country\u2019s most important cultural events. Historically held in the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, it is free of charge and extends into the park, which expands its public impact and resonance. \u201cSometimes people are just walking around the park, having picnics, and they might go in not being fully aware of what a biennial is and have these serendipitous encounters with art. That\u2019s why the Bienal must be able to speak to all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 36th Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo draws its title from an enigmatic poem by Afro-Brazilian poet Concei\u00e7\u00e3o Evaristo, calma e do sil\u00eancio<\/i> (Of calm and silence<\/i>), where the long-overlooked and recently rediscovered author writes, \u201cnot every traveler\/walks road, \/ there are submerged worlds, \/ that only silence \/ from poetry.\u201d These lines form the conceptual entry point for an exhibition structured around three central axes\u2014one reclaiming space and time, one asking the public to see themselves reflected in others and contemplate the necessary interrelational essence of existence, and one taking the estuary as a symbol and metaphor for generative encounters.<\/p>\n

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The first \u201cInvocation\u201d in Marrakesh featured the final performance of Lalla Khala and the Gifted Mothers of Dar Bellarj. \u00a9 Youssef Boumbarek \/ Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thiago de Paula Souza told Observer that the building will be transformed into a place where a diverse set of narratives and voices will converge. \u201cWe are imagining the pavilion as an estuary, which is this encounter of different bodies of water, where saltwater and freshwater meet.\u201d The transformation will serve as a powerful symbolic metaphor translating the history of Brazil, marked by the fusion of Indigenous peoples, Europeans and enslaved Africans. Within this framework, the exhibition will explore how cultures manage difference, navigate conflict and pursue coexistence through new modes of thought and beauty, drawing inspiration from writers like Patrick Chamoiseau<\/a> and \u00c9douard Glissant. \u201cIt took eighteen months to build this Bienal,\u201d de Paula Souza said. \u201cWe\u2019re not responding to every current event, but the show is meant as a portrait of our time\u2014mirroring the ruptures, conflicts and transformations that define the human condition today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of these ideas have already been tested through a series of global \u201cInvocations\u201d held in 2024 and 2025 in cities across the Global South. Organized in collaboration with local cultural institutions, these events\u2014part lecture, part performance, part ritual\u2014took place in Morocco, Guadeloupe, Tanzania and Japan. \u201cThey\u2019re called invocations because we\u2019re trying to call in the energy we want to bring to the exhibition,\u201d de Paula Souza explained. The central focus has been on sound and sonic traditions\u2014how music, rhythm and voice connect across cultures.<\/p>\n

Launching the series, the Moroccan encounter Souffles: On Deep Listening and Active Reception<\/i> took place in Marrakesh at LE 18 and Fondation Dar Bellarj. Led by Laila Hida<\/a> and Maha Elmadi<\/a>, the event focused on the precarity of breath, exploring the tradition of Gnawa and Sufi cultures and questioning how listening is already a practice of coexistence.<\/p>\n

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Olivier Marboeuf gives a performance talk during the second \u201cInvocation\u201d in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe. \u00a9 Philippe Hurgon \/ Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That first \u201cInvocation\u201d was followed by Bigidi m\u00e8 pa tonb\u00e9!<\/i> (Totter, but never fall!<\/i>), presented in December in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, which focused on dance as a practice of bodily adaptation and resistance. In February, the biennial landed in Zanzibar with Mawali-Taqsim: Improvisation as a Space and Technology of Humanity<\/i>, which explored the perception of Taarab not only as a rhythm but as a tool of encounters and multiple exchanges on the East Coast of Africa. Finally, a few weeks ago, the Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo concluded the series in Tokyo with Bukimi no Tani (\u4e0d\u6c17\u5473\u306e\u8c37): The Uncanny Valley \u2013 The Affectivity of the Humanoid<\/i>, questioning how humans have encountered, adapted and integrated technology into their existence.<\/p>\n

While the full list of participating artists won\u2019t be announced until late May, these themes and moments of encounter and exchange will converge at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion. Crucially, this series\u2014and the broader curatorial framework that has shaped the Bienal in recent years\u2014marks a deliberate effort to construct a truly multicultural platform for critical engagement with the idea of humanity in this precarious historical moment. Moving beyond the confines of identity, geography and chronology, the latest edition of the Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo will attempt to address the human condition on a genuinely universal scale.<\/p>\n

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