Geography serves as the landed place for artists. For some, it may emerge as a sense of culture; for others, it functions as a geographical frame of reference. In the upcoming São Paulo Biennial, we will see how the usual internationalism is filtered through a local gaze.
Event notes: Apparitions, Juliana dos Santos, Bienal de São Paulo and WAVA
The Ministry of Culture, the São Paulo State Government, through the São Paulo State Department of Culture and the Creative Economy, the Municipal Department of Culture and Creative Economy of the City of São Paulo, Fundação Bienal de expand the experience of the forthcoming edition with international connections
With the opening of the exhibition, the Bienal also launches its public program, the Conjugations: a series of debates, gatherings, performances, and activations, some of which are developed in collaboration with cultural institutions from various parts of the world and presented at the Bienal Pavilion throughout the exhibition’s four-month run.
The initiative seeks to explore how these institutions, grounded in different geographies, conjugate the notion of humanity through their everyday practices. Each organization invited curates a meeting in São Paulo involving thinkers, artists, performers, and diverse audiences, activating global connections with the local context. The institutions are: 32o East (Kampala); Africa Design School (Cotonou); Afrotonizar (Salvador); Ajabu ajabu (Dar es Salaam); blaxTARLINES (Kumasi); Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) (New York); Central Bank Museum (Port of Spain); Festa Literária das Periferias – FLUP (Rio de Janeiro); Fondation H (Antananarivo); Jatiwangi Art Factory (Jatiwangi); Kunsthochschule Weißensee (Berlin); Más Arte Más Acción (Chocó); Metro54 (Amsterdam); SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin); Tanoto Art Foundation (Singapore).
Another highlight of this edition is the Apparitions project, an unprecedented initiative in the history of the Bienal de São Paulo, developed in partnership with the WAVA platform. Using augmented reality technology, fragments, extensions, and echoes of the works in the Bienal de São Paulo manifest themselves in Ibirapuera Park and specific locations around the world, chosen by the artists themselves – such as the banks of the Congo River, the border between Mexico and the United States, urban parks in São Paulo or cities in Africa and Asia. Through the app, visitors can access the works only at the designated locations, creating a situated and globally accessible sensory experience.
Andrew Roberts for Apparitions, Bienal de São Paulo and WAVA
“One of the many ways of conjugating humanity is by creating encounters. Humanity is not an abstract noun, but a verb and practice in encounters, in words, in crossings. Both Conjugations and Apparitions are epitomes of such encounters through which humanities can be formulated: by activating networks and presences in different geographies, we are making a Bienal in constant flux. Like the migratory birds that inspire our curatorial strategy, these actions cross territories, carrying and collecting meanings”, says the general curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung.
Both Conjugations and Apparitions not only decentralize the experience of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, but also broaden its curatorial proposal, creating a network of listening, presence, and participation that crosses continents.
“It is a joy for our management to make it possible for unprecedented projects to be conceived especially for this edition of the Bienal”, says Andrea Pinheiro, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.
“Programs such as Conjugations and Apparitions not only expand this edition, but further reinforce the Bienal de São Paulo’s vocation as a space of connection, which crosses borders and builds bridges between different audiences and cultures”, she concludes.
About the 36th Bienal de São Paulo
With a concept created by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, alongside co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz, and Thiago de Paula Souza, co-curator at large Keyna Eleison, and communications and strategy consultant Henriette Gallus, as well as curatorial assistant Andre Pitol and Leonardo Matsuhei, the next edition is inspired by the poem “Da calma e do silêncio” [Of Calm and Silence], by poet Conceição Evaristo, and has as one of its main foundations the active listening of humanity as a practice in constant displacement, encounter, and negotiation. In all, this year’s edition brings together 120 participants at the Bienal Pavilion and another five at Casa do Povo co-convened by Benjamin Seroussi and Daniel Blanga-Gubbay.
The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo thanks its strategic partner Itaú and its master sponsors Bloomberg, Bradesco, Petrobras, Instituto Cultural Vale, Citi, and Vivo.
This project is being carried out with funds from the Culture Incentive Law, the Ministry of Culture, and the Federal Government.
About the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
Founded in 1962, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is a private, nonprofit institution with no party political or religious ties, whose actions aim to democratize access to culture and foster interest in artistic creation. Every two years, the Foundation holds the Bienal de São Paulo, the largest exhibition of the Southern Hemisphere, and its itinerant exhibitions in several cities in Brazil and abroad. The institution is also the custodian of two items of Latin American artistic and cultural heritage: a historical archive of modern and contemporary art that is a standard reference in Latin America (the Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo), and the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, the head office of the Foundation, designed by Oscar Niemeyer and listed as historical heritage. The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is also responsible for conceiving and producing Brazil’s representations at the Venice Biennales of art and architecture, a prerogative bestowed upon it decades ago by the Federal Government in recognition of the excellence of its contributions to Brazilian culture.
36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not all travelers walk roads – Of humanity as practice
Chief curator: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung / Co-curators: Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz, Thiago de Paula Souza / Co-curator at large: Keyna Eleison / Strategy and communications advisor: Henriette Gallus
6 sep 2025 – 11 jan 2026
tue – fri, sun, 10am – 6pm (last entrance: 5.30pm)
sat, 10am – 7pm (last entrance: 6.30pm)
Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavillion
Parque Ibirapuera · Portão 3 · São Paulo, SP
free admission
São Paulo, August 20, 2025 – The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo opens the 36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice on September 6, with free admission until January 11, 2026. Images courtesy of 36th Bienal de São Paulo
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
