36th São Paulo Biennale has opened
The 36th edition of the São Paulo Biennale, the second-oldest biennale in the world, has begun. On the 4th September, it was the private viewing for the press, followed by a cocktail event at the event, which gathered hundreds of artists, curators, collectors, gallerists, and enthusiasts of the arts. Today, the 5th, is the opening is for the art milieu’s professionals — curators, researchers, artists, gallerists, art exhibition producers, and so on.
The curatorial team is led by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, a Cameroonian curator based in Berlin, accompanied by co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz and Thiago de Paula Souza, as well as co-curator at large Keyna Eleison and strategy and communication advisor Henriette Gallus. It is a team comprised of 50% Brazilians and 50% foreigners. Indeed, it is an international megaevent, not only showing a great deal of foreign artists but also attracting audiences from many parts of Brazil and other countries.
The theme revolves around the idea of ‘Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice.’ It can be understood as a search for ways to develop a new humanism in order to face the climate crisis that affects us throughout the world. The aim is to rethink humanity as a verb, in the sense that it is not static, so it can be changed towards a more virtuous direction. The name of this edition derives from Afrobrazilian poet Conceição Evaristo’s cryptic poem ‘Of calm and silence.’
This exhibition proposes a more inclusive and diverse vision of the arts and gathers works by bringing together 125 artists — 28% of them are from Africa, 25% from South America, 16% from Asia and 16% from Europe. A great percentage of them are unfamiliar to most of us, as they have not been shown in Brazil before and may have been shown little in America and Europe.
This iteration develops its theme by gathering paintings, sculptures, video installations, sound installations, etc. Six ‘chapters’ or sections occupying the 3-storey building deal with ideas such as departures and belongings, insurgences, migrations, other cosmogonies, transformation as something constant, and beauty as an act of resistance.
It incorporates cultures such as Yoruba, Nguemba, Amazigh, Urdu, Caribbean, Arab, Kemetic, Candomblé, Santería, Māori, as well as feminist, queer, and black standpoints. Co-curator Keyna stated it ‘is born out of the wish to hear what pulses from beyond the boundaries.’ In previous months before the opening, events were organised to foster discussions on art by poets, visual artists, and activists in cities like Marrakech, Guadalupe, Zanzibar and Tokyo.
In many ways, it continues the ideas and approaches presented in the 2023 edition of the megashow, which had its first edition in 1951 and is nowadays one of the three top biennales, alongside Venice’s and Gwangju’s. In 2023, nearly 700,000 people visited it.
Four of the unmissable artists in this show are: Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos (Brazilian, b. 1995), Antonio Társis (Brazilian, b. 1995), Frank Bowling (British, b. 1934) and Marlene Almeida (Brazilian, b. 1942).
Ana Raylander is a multidisciplinary artist living in São Paulo. Interested in her Afrobrazilian origin, her practice aims at connecting her biography to the collective history. At this show, her work literally crosses all floors.
Antônio Társis was born in Salvador and lives in London. He mostly uses objects found in the streets, gunpowder, charcoal, and boxes of matches. His work here was developed with sounds, alongside 25 people. The piece was inspired by a samba by Batatinha and Cesária Évora.
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Frank Bowling, born in Bartica, lives in London. A world-famous artist, his abstract paintings are connected with his personal memories. Here, he has three small-scale and one huge-scale works.
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Marlene Almeida, born in Bananeiras, lives in João Pessoa. Her works build upon matter and territory. Here, she shows ‘Museum of Brazilian soils,’ which is similar to a lab, and ‘Living soil,’ an installation composed of strips of raw cotton fabric and matte tempera.
As this is just a tiny selection of artists, I will get back to this discussion of this biennale’s artists at another occasion, with more attention to foreign ones.
The 36th edition of the São Paulo Biennale will be on show until the 11th of January 2026. Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to expand our ideas and thoughts about art and the pressing issues of today. Count on us to visit it and guide you through its sea of artworks.
Luis Sandes for London Art Walk
September 2025