The largest contemporary art event in the Southern Hemisphere occupies the Pavilhão da Bienal, in Parque Ibirapuera, in São Paulo. The 36th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo began on 6 September and will be open to the public until 11 January 2026, with free admission and new features, such as the installations at Casa do Povo, in Bom Retiro. There are 125 artists, with a predominance of representatives from the African continent and from Latin America.
The works engage with the central theme, taken from the poem “Da calma e do silêncio”, by Conceição Evaristo: with the verse “Nem todo viandante anda estradas – Da humanidade como prática” as inspiration, main curator, responsible for the exhibition concept was Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, alongside the co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz and Thiago de Paula Souza, the co-curator at large Keyna Eleison and the communication and strategy consultant Henriette Gallus.
Before designing the exhibition, the curatorial team held a series of public events named “Invocações” in Marrakech, Guadeloupe, Zanzibar and Tokyo. These stages worked as an “initial ritual”, where artists, poets, musicians and activists debated themes such as belonging and collectivity far beyond preparatory events, these trips by the team became a fundamental part of the curatorship.
Among the Brazilian highlights, there are artists such as Alberto Pitta, Aislan Pankararu, Aline Baiana, Antonio Társis, Gê Viana, Gervane de Paula, Heitor dos Prazeres, Juliana dos Santos, Lídia Lisbôa, Márcia Falcão, Maria Auxiliadora, Marlene Almeida, Maxwell Alexandre, Moisés Patricio, Nádia Taquary and Sallisa Rosa.
In the international line-up, works by Adama Delphine Fawundu, Amina Agueznay, Kader Attia, Leiko Ikemura, Laure Prouvost, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Oscar Murillo, Otobong Nkanga, Precious Okoyomon, Suchitra Mattai, Thania Petersen, Wolfgang Tillmans and Pol Taburet stand out.
Another highlight is the educational programme, which plans to bring up to 100,000 children to the pavilion and to train more than 25,000 state school teachers – a significant expansion in relation to the 80,000 and 18,000, respectively, of the previous edition.
Want to know more? Visit the official website: https://bienal.org.br/
