A First Amazon Biennial transformed the cultural scene of Belém, Pará, between August and November 2023, on the banks of the Guamá River. The result of the vision of cultural producer Lívia Condurú in collaboration with curators Sandra Benites, Keyna Eleison and Vânia Leal, the event also had the curatorial assistance of Ana Clara Simões Lopes and Débora Oliveira.
Six months after the closing of this inaugural edition, the Amazon Biennial Cultural Center (CCBA) opened its doors, consolidating the initiative's permanent presence in the region. In an exclusive interview with arte!brasileiros, Lívia Condurú, who presides over both the Biennial and the Cultural Center, shares reflections on the challenges overcome, the impact achieved and the promising prospects for the future of this project that repositions the Amazon on the contemporary cultural map.
What was it like to transform an ambitious project like the Amazon Biennial into reality?
Launching the Amazon Biennial in 2023 was like building an institution in a vacuum — from absolute zero. Without headquarters, with a reduced team, with a budget far below what was necessary and, even so, with the ambition of holding an international Biennial based in the Amazon territory.
The initial plan was to occupy museum spaces in the state of Pará and the city of Belém. When we lost these spaces, seven months before the inauguration, we had to restructure everything. In 43 days, we renovated an 8-square-meter building in the commercial center of Belém and organized the first edition of the Amazon Biennial.
It was a huge collective effort. We held an exhibition with more than 120 artists from all the states of the Brazilian Amazon and all the countries of the Pan-Amazon region. The biggest challenge was symbolic: gaining the trust of the region — showing that we were not coming from outside, but speaking from the Amazon, with its voices, knowledge and bodies.
Being here today, with the second edition on its way, proves that many of the obstacles have been overcome — with huge challenges, but with coherence, persistence and active listening.
After this first edition, what assessment do you make of the cultural, institutional and social impact of the Biennial? What were the main lessons learned and what challenges still need to be overcome to ensure the sustainability of the project?
The result is tangible and symbolic. In just over a year, we transformed a long-decommissioned building into an active cultural space, which in 2024 alone hosted seven exhibitions, where we mobilized 167 artists and exhibited more than 570 works. Of these, six were entirely designed by our artistic director in dialogue with guest curators. We served more than 21 people in Belém alone, through our musical and theatrical performances, workshops, discussion groups, and free educational program.
The Biennial has also become a platform for institutional articulation. We are promoting the 1st Meeting of South-South Managers, in November 2024, in Belém, with representatives of cultural institutions from the Southern Hemisphere, creating networks between Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and India.
From this first edition, we structured a powerful itinerary, which passed through Marabá, Canaã dos Carajás, both in Pará; São Luís (MA), Boa Vista (RR) and now travels through Manaus (AM) and Macapá (AP). In July of this year, we will arrive in Medellín, Colombia, with the first international exhibition of the Amazon Biennial.
Our greatest learning is that, as cultural workers, nothing is built alone. The Amazon Biennial is what it is only thanks to the hard work of professionals who believe in what they are doing together. And the greatest challenge we face is financing. Today we are finalizing the structuring of our endowment, a wealth fund that will allow us to achieve long-term institutional sustainability. We are negotiating with investors and strategic partners to ensure that the project does not depend exclusively on incentive laws, which are essential but insufficient when seeking continuity, independence and long-term planning.
Mobility seems to be a fundamental aspect of the Biennial. How has this circulation strategy expanded the reach and significance of the project for different Amazonian communities?
Itinerancy is one of the pillars of the Biennial. We do not want access to what we are doing to be limited to a fixed point. The Amazon Biennial needs to circulate throughout its territory, encounter different communities and engage in dialogue with diverse realities in the Amazon and beyond.
Between August 2023 and April 2025, including the first edition, actions carried out at the Centro Cultural Bienal das Amazônias, itinerant tours and activities on the boat, we have already been visited by around 80 thousand people. This is very significant for an independent project, carried out by cultural workers, based in the Amazon, in a country with such striking inequalities.
The boat — a raft measuring almost a thousand square meters — is an architectural work by Bolivian artist Freddy Mamani. But it is also an institutional symbol: a floating cultural center that aims to reach out to various cities on the banks of the Amazon rivers through art and culture.
At this point, it begins its navigation along the Pará, Tocantins and Amazonas rivers, with stops in more than 10 cities. Returning to Belém in August with a cultural program open to the public. Remember that all of our programming is absolutely free.
I don't know if we can talk about success, the important thing for us is that we have the support of the people who make the Amazon what it is, and I believe that, little by little, we are achieving this.
What can we expect from the second edition of the Amazon Biennial? How does the new international curatorship dialogue with the project’s founding principles?
The second edition of the Amazon Biennial expands its borders. The chief curator is Ecuadorian Manuela Moscoso, who brings her international experience with institutions in Latin America and Europe.
Alongside her, as assistant curator, is Colombian Sara Garzón, whose research focuses on the Global South and decolonial epistemologies; Mexican Monica Amieva, who is a pedagogue, researcher and art historian, and will sign the pedagogical curatorship; and Jean da Silva, from Pará, a thinker and important climate activist, who is co-curator of the public program. The visual identity is created by Argentine designer Priscila Clementti and artist Caio Aguiar, aka Bonikta, from Pará.
The edition expands beyond the Panamazon: let's connect with the Caribbean.
But the most important thing is that we continue with the principle of collectivity. The Biennial is not built only by the names that sign the curatorship. It is made by a body of committed professionals — researchers, producers, editors, educators — who together build the materiality of this dream.
What can we expect from the second edition of the Amazon Biennial? A vibrant, critical, sensitive biennial. An edition that reaffirms the cultural and political power of the Amazon in the present.
