31st Bienal de São Paulo

How to talk about things that don’t exist

6 Sep – 7 Dec 2014

Curators: 
Charles Esche, Galit Eilat, Nuria Enguita Mayo, Pablo Lafuente and Oren Sagiv

The focus of the 31st Bienal will be on contemporary conditions and how art projects can engage with and activate histories, individuals and communities today. The Bienal was shaped by a series of talks in different open meetings organized by the curatorial team across Brazil and other cities in Latin America and the world.

The use of the word ‘project’ is intended to create a distance from the traditional idea of an autonomous artwork made in a studio by an artist. By using this word, it is possible to introduce a broader range of contemporary cultural practices and include people working in other disciplines, such as educators, sociologists, architects, performers. The term also serves to encourage collaboration and trans-disciplinary ways of working amongst the Bienal participants. Each project is an independent contribution, but may consist of many artworks by individual or collective authorship. More than half the projects have been made specifically for this Bienal, many by international artists who have produced work in response to a residency in the city and the opportunity to travel further in Brazil.

Architecture: the pavilion divided

A crucial aspect of the 31st Bienal is the way the Ciccillo Matarazzo pavilion is understood as divided into different areas, each with its own architectural logic and particular qualities. The ground floor is called Park, and is connected and opened up to the surrounding landscape, to become a space for reception, events and meetings. The Ramp adapts to the verticality and the circulation of the pavilion’s main access route (the ramp) to create a series of curvaceous spaces linked by a monumental spiral. Here, the artworks and projects are shown without enclosing rooms, and are related to each other both vertically and horizontally. The Columns articulates the largest continuous space of the pavilion on the second floor, dividing it into densities with areas of light and shadow, or sound and silence, that create an interplay of experiences. A small, central area isolates some singular artistic statements and the three different areas from each other.

Facing the present

While the Modern Movement has an affective and vital history in Brazil, it is no longer representative of a living present. Therefore the aesthetic criteria of modernism and the striving towards progress are not prominent in the 31st Bienal. While some projects will reference the period, in most cases the modern is simply not a force that is at stake for the artists’ research and work. This approach to the recent past means that a different hierarchy of sources and inspirations can be established, one that recognizes the possibilities in the pre-modern and the non-modern, or in the spiritual and popular culture, to offer different readings of contemporary conditions. It also means that the influence of collective imagination, social activism and political conflict is as significant as the heritage of artisticpractice to the artists in the 31st Bienal.

List of artists and projects

• Agnieszka Piksa • It’s Just the Spin of Inner Life
• Alejandra Riera and UEINZZ • “… – MUTE – OHPERA – ... ”
• Ana Lira • Vote!
• Anna Boghiguian • Cities by the River
• Archivo F.X. / Pedro G. Romero • The Modern School
• Armando Queiroz with Almires Martins and Marcelo Rodrigues • Ymá Nhandehetama 
• Arthur Scovino • House of Caboclo
• Asger Jorn • 10,000 Years of Nordic Folk Art
• Asier Mendizabal • Agoramaquia (The Exact Case of the Statue)
• Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme • The Incidental Insurgents
• Bik Van der Pol • Turning a Blind Eye
• Bruno Pacheco • Meeting Point and other works
• Chto Delat • The Excluded. In a moment of danger
• Clara Ianni and Débora Maria da Silva • Plea
• Dan Perjovschi • Wall, Work, Workshop. The São Paulo Drawing
• Danica Dakić • Heaven / El Dorado / Vila Maria
• Éder Oliveira • Untitled
• Edward Krasiński • Spear and other works
• El Hadji Sy • Marine Archaeology
• Erick Beltrán • Double Goer
• Etcétera… and León Ferrari • Erring from God
• Gabriel Mascaro • It Is Not About Shoes
• Giuseppe Campuzano • Life’s Timeline / Transvestite Museum of Peru
• Graziela Kunsch • Fare Free Bus  • with Lilian L’Abbate Kelian Urbânia 5 Magazine
• Gülsün Karamustafa • Illustrated History / The Settler
• Halil Altındere • Wonderland
• Hudinilson Jr. • Tension Zone
• Imogen Stidworthy • Balayer – A Map of Sweeping
• Ines Doujak and John Barker • Loomshuttles, Warpaths
• Jakob Jakobsen and María Berríos • The Revolution Must Be a School of Unfettered Thought
• Jo Baer • In the Land of the Giants and other works
• Johanna Calle • Imponderables / Perimeters
• Jonas Staal • Nosso Lar, Brasília
• Juan Carlos Romero • Violence
• Juan Downey • The Abandoned Shabono / Video Trans Americas
• Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa • Dead Letter
• Kasper Akhøj and Tamar Guimarães • Captain Gervásio’s Family
• Lázaro Saavedra • Under Pressure
• Leigh Orpaz • Breakfast
• Lia Perjovschi • A Research
• Mapa Teatro – Laboratorio de artistas • The Uncounted: A Triptych
• Mark Lewis • Invention
• Marta Neves • No-Ideas
• Michael Kessus Gedalyovich • The Name Giver / The Placebo Scroll
• Mujeres Creando • Space to Abort
• Nahum Zenil / Ocaña / Sergio Zevallos / Yeguas del Apocalipsis (Organized by Miguel A. López) • God is Queer
• Nilbar Güreş • Open Phone Booth / Black Series / TrabZONE and other works
• Nurit Sharett • Counting the Stars
• Otobong Nkanga • Landversation
• Prabhakar Pachpute • Dark Clouds of the Future
• Qiu Zhijie • Map
• Romy Pocztaruk • The Last Adventure
• ruangrupa • RURU
• Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti and Grupo Contrafilé • Mujawara
• Sheela Gowda • Those of Whom
• Teatro da Vertigem • The Last Word Is the Penultimate One – 2
• Teresa Lanceta • Bert Flint / Granada / Handira
• Thiago Martins de Melo • Martyrdom
• Tiago Borges and Yonamine • AfroUFO
• Tony Chakar • One Hundred Thousand Solitudes / Of Other Worlds That Are on This One
• Val del Omar • Water-Mirror of Granada / Fire in Castile
• Virginia de Medeiros • Sergio and Simone 
• Vivian Suter • Untitled
• Voluspa Jarpa • Learning Histories
• Walid Raad • Letters to the Reader (1864, 1877, 1916, 1923)
• Wilhelm Sasnal • Capital 
• Yael Bartana • Hell
• Yuri Firmeza • The Fortress / Nothing Is
• Yochai Avrahami • Small World

Image: Alex Barcellos, Narra Várzea e Marco Pezão, Sarau A Plenos Pulmões. Courtesy Bienal de São Paulo