For the second time, Lisette Lagnado wins the curatorship of a biennial after presenting a project and being evaluated by an independent commission. Now, she will curate the 11th. Berlin Biennale, in 2020, together with the Chilean María Berríos, the Argentinian Renata Cervetto and the Spaniard Agustín Pérez Rubio.

In 2005, Lagnado was chosen to organize the 27th. Bienal de São Paulo, held in 2006 with the title how to live together, based on seminars by philosopher Roland Barthes, in the 1970s, inspired by the works of Hélio Oiticica.

This is the second time that Latin America has led the German show, since in 2014 it was organized by Colombian curator Juan Gaitán. The chosen team is now a group that has never worked together, but gravitates towards Latin America with transgressive practices. Rubio has directed Malba (Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires) for the last four years, where he had a program that reinforced the presence of women artists, such as Claudia Andujar, in addition to a radical educational program at the institution. He organized in São Paulo the exhibition indelible memories, based on the collection of Associação Cultural Videobrasil, at Sesc Pompéia, in 2014. Previously, Rubio directed the Musac (Museum of Contemporary Art in Castilla and Leon), where he dedicated much of his work to Latin American artists. Argentinian curator Cervetto worked with Rubio on Malba in public programs.

Lagnado is recognized as one of the most experimental curators in Brazil. the biennial how to live together it was inspired by the work of Oiticica, but did not present works by the artist, only by contemporaries who produced works with similar principles. In 2010, she organized Deviations from the Drift, Experiences, Travesías, and Morphologies, together with Berrios, at the Reina Sofia Museum, in Madrid, shows that one of the central axes was the work of Flavio de Carvalho (1899 – 1973) and his provocative actions.

She also directed the Parque Lage Visual Arts School, in Rio, between 2014 and 2017, dedicating herself to arts education, which she had already started in São Paulo, in the master's program at Faculdade Santa Marcelina.

Berrios, in addition to being a curator, also participated in the 31st. Sao Paulo Biennale, As …. things that don't exist, in 2014, in the artistic project The revolution must be an unrestricted school of thought, organized together with the Danish Jakob Jakobsen, based on the exhibition del tercer world, which took place in Cuba in 1968, the center of a series of events that sought to debate the role of art and language in the context of the struggle against imperialism.

The group moves to Berlin at the beginning of 2019 and will succeed a Biennial with a highly positive impact, We don't need another hero, led by South African Gabi Nboco with four other curators, among them the Brazilian Thiago de Paula Souza.

While the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo continues with imperial nominations, both the curator of the Bienal and the Brazilian representative in Venice are chosen by the president of the institution, Berlin is an example of a democratic process.

This year's commission was formed by curators Doryun Chong (M+, Hong Kong), Adrienne Edwards (Whitney Museum, New York), Reem Fadda, Solange O. Farkas (Associação Cultural Videobrasil, São Paulo), Krist Gruijthuijsen (KW, Berlin) , Miguel A. López (TEOR/ethics, San José) and the artist Omer Fast (Berlin). The group met three times: once to get to know the rules and start naming names, another to select the projects to be evaluated in person, and the last time for interviews and final selection.

The Berlin Biennale was created in 1997 by KunstWerke (KW) and its main sponsor is the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany, with around 3 million euros (R$ 13 million), the budget of the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo is the double, R$ 26 million, most of it coming through incentive laws, that is, public funds.


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