In the second half of 2023, the 35th Bienal de São Paulo – choreographies of the impossible took center stage in São Paulo’s artistic and cultural scene. It is now preparing for a journey in 2024 through the traveling exhibitions program, which the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo has been running consistently since 2011, the 29th edition of the show.
The traveling exhibitions program begins on January 27th at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian cities the Bienal will visit include São José do Rio Preto and Campinas, at their respective SESCs; Curitiba, at the Museu Oscar Niemeyer; Belém, at the Museu de Arte de Belém; Salvador, at the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia; Brasília, at the Museu Nacional da República; Belo Horizonte, at the Palácio das Artes; Vitória, at the Palácio Anchieta; Fortaleza, at the Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura; and Porto Alegre, at the Fundação Iberê Camargo.
For curators Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes, and Manuel Borja-Villel, it is significant that the exhibition is traveling to all regions of the country and internationally: “The debates proposed by the 35th Bienal cross countless territories around the world, so the fact that the choreographies of the impossible are not restricted to the Bienal Pavilion is extremely important for the work undertaken.”
The international stages of the traveling exhibitions program will cover three countries, marking the first time that the Bienal will be on the African continent. The countries visited will be Argentina (MALBA and Palacio Pereda in Buenos Aires); for the first time, Bolivia (venue to be confirmed); and Angola (Luanda, in partnership with the Guimarães Rosa Institute).
Andrea Pinheiro, the president of the Bienal, highlights the importance of this moment: “The itinerant exhibitions of the Bienal de São Paulo, implemented as a permanent institutional program more than a decade ago, reinforce that the show is the heritage of all Brazilians and carries Brazil’s artistic and curatorial production to the world.”