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ENGLISH VERSION RETROSPECTIVES

exhibited in the Special Room illustrate right at the entrance to the exhibition, part of works by Aurora Cursino dos Santos
the turning point of the 1940s: expelled of the installation Parliament of Ghosts (1896-1959) is particularly touching, which
by the Spanish Civil War and, after (Parliament of ghosts) by Ibrahim Mahama, was part of her production at the Juquery
settling in Paris in 1938, expelled an artist from Ghana, who remembers the psychiatric hospital, hospitalized af er a life
by German troops, Lam returned initiatives of the colonizers in Africa with all that mixed marriage, travels around Europe
to Cuba and embarked on the great their structural violence. Next door, however, and prostitution. Moments of her life are
cross-cultural synthesis that makes it he recreates the red brick bleachers of his narrated in her paintings, which the curators
so contemporary. Understanding that studio hall, a place for creation and dialogue. display in order to see how they were made
he was neither Chinese, nor African, nor Would this then be a decolonial biennial? on gum packets. Other inmates in asylums,
European, he discovered that he was This is not a concept claimed by the such as Stella do Patrocínio, Arthur Bispo
“Caribbean”, part of that archipelago of curatorial team, but there is no doubt that do Rosario and Ubirajara Ferreira Braga also
cultures that the violence of history had the option was to list a series of initiatives appear in choreographies of the impossible
created in the heart of the sugar industry. and narratives that question official history, with broad series of works.
In his eyes, as well as in the eyes of his through works and gestures not necessarily Now, it is undeniable that this Biennale also
Martinican friends Aimé Césaire and in the field of conventional art. has a resounding presence of production
Edouard Glissant, from the very heart Among them are current collectives, from within the art system, especially in
of the contradictions that constitute such as the São Paulo-based Frente 3 de works by women such as Citra Sasmita,
this archipelago, arises the possibility Fevereiro and the Argentinean Archivo de Rosana Paulino and Carmézia Emiliano.
of imagining, dreaming and painting, a la Memoria Trans Argentina (amt), as well Rosana’s new series, large paintings of
future for humanity. as works from almost two centuries ago, women who take root and merge with trees,
such as those by the Bolivian Melchor María is breathtaking, as are Citra’s paintings.
35 são paulo biennial review [pages 34 to 37] Mercado (1816-1871). The Balinese artist presents the project
th
Market is seen with the Album of Timur Merah (Red East), in which Indonesian
THE GREAT CHOIR OF landscapes, human types and customs, women with long black hair play various
BLACK, INDIGENOUS AND made between 1841 and 1869, which presents roles, human and animal, nude, returning
LGBTQIAPN+ VOICES a very surrealist narrative about the Bolivian here to the perspective that makes nature
nation in its beginnings, ironizing political
a big family, as in Rosana Paulino. This
With 121 artists and participants, the power and pointing to the corruption of the holistic vision is also seen in Carmézia’s
majority of whom are non-white, colonial elite. It’s brilliant. paintings, which expose the daily life of the
Choreographies of the Impossible The 3 de Fevereiro Front is seen in an Macuxi people, in Roraima. In fact, there is a
addresses the ruins of modernity to installation that tells and contextualizes constellation of indigenous works, whether
affirmative action by collectives
its history, marked by denunciations in in the poetic videos of Aida, Edmar and
by fabio cypriano public spaces, such as the iconic banners Roseana Yanomami, or in the paintings of
Where are the black people e Zombie is the Huni Kuin Artists Movement (Mahku),
one of the first works of choreogra- us extended in stadiums of the Brazilian or in the works of Denilson Baniwa and
phies of the impossible On the ground football championship, in 2005. In the Edgar Calel.
floor of the São Paulo Biennial Pavilion is installation, using technological resources, As you can see, the exhibition is full of
the pedestal of a monument. This base Dona Maurinete Lima (1942-2018), one of the friction, but it is not at all literal, which is a
was used for a performance by the artist of creators of the movement, appears narrating relief, since there is no concept that defines
Mayan-Caqchiguel origin, from Guatemala, the work. It’s moving. how to look at the works. Temporality is
Marilyn Boror Bor, in which her legs were Meanwhile, the Argentine collective also something relativized in the exhibition,
cemented. Af er a few minutes, however, amt presents a selection of images from without arranging the works as if they were
she lef the pedestal empty. its collection of 12 thousand pieces, which part of a Cartesian linearity. One of the
During the 35th São Paulo Biennial, living aims to connect people, bringing together highlights in this sense is the painting by
monument it will be seen as a pedestal that more than a thousand trans women in 2018. Juan van der Hamen y León, the Portrait
does not idolize anyone and has at its base The archive is also accessible online, and on of Dona Catalina de Erauso. The ensign
the writing: “In memory of the defenders of shows looks like a cloud of images. nun, from around 1625, which presents a
the land; in memory of spiritual guides, in These three initiatives point to how this masculinized image of a nun, pointing to
gratitude to political prisoners; in gratitude Biennale aims to do more than look at the a liquid sexuality already in the xnumxth
to community leaders; for the rivers, the field of art, exposing initiatives that impact century, alongside documents from the
lakes, the hills, the mountains.” culture more broadly. This is also the case xnumxth century that point to the enslaved
The emptiness of the monument is a with the series of photos by Rosa Gauditano Xica Manicongo as the first transvestite
gesture that seems to me to symbolize the taken for two months in 1978, from 23 pm in Brazil.
exhibition, organized by Diane Lima, Grada to 6 am, with the regulars of Ferro’s Bar, a In fact, the portrait is the theme of the
Kilomba, Hélio Menezes and Manuel Borja- traditional lesbian bar in the center of São video A voice for Erauso. An epilogue for
Villel, the first time that a team with a black Paulo, a series censored by Veja magazine, a trans time, by the Spanish duo Helena
majority, in no less than 72 years of history, and now staged with as if displayed in a Cabello and Ana Carceller, who two years
is responsible for the São Paulo Biennial. bohemian environment. In the images, ago brought to public the complex figure of
It is not an exhibition of works with there is an unusual intimacy with women, the Spanish shack, which freed itself from
sensationalist effects, those that are usually at a time when photojournalism was still gender binarism.
called biennial works, but, like the living marked by coldness and detachment. It is The lgbtqiapn+ issue is in fact a strong
monument, point to gestures that seek these innovative gestures, even if invisible axis of the exhibition, and another work
to question the universal canon, without, when carried out, that this Biennale that deserves attention is the film Untied
however, putting another one in its place. exposes. The impossible becoming tongues, from 1989, made by Marlon Riggs
And this is very good. possible through small movements. (1957-1994), an authorial documentary about
It’s like the useless train track, which is Regarding silencing, in fact, the selection the lives of black gays in the United States.
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