Many biennials create a field of tension between the exhibition and its title. The common thread of the 14th edition of the Mercosur Biennial is the idea of Snap, that moment when everything changes. The polysemic, popular word can refer to theater, dance, photography, sports, violence and is always on people's lips. The unusual theme was chosen by curator Raphael Fonseca and his assistant curators Tiago Sant'Ana, Yina Jiménez Suriel and Fernanda Medeiros. “The idea was to think of a title without an academic, scientific or situationist character”, comments the curator.
Scheduled for last year, the exhibition was postponed due to the floods that hit the state. Now, it returns with a vengeance, occupying 18 exhibition spaces with works that range from those produced by artificial intelligence to ancestral pieces of indigenous origin, as well as others that are more playful or engaged with politics and sustainability.
With a wide range of concepts, this eagerly awaited edition reaffirms Porto Alegre as an artistic hub. Whether close or distant, familiar or unusual, innovative or revisited, each work seeks to give voice to the central concept, revealing itself in layers that sometimes provoke reflection, sometimes arouse rejection.
The film/installation draws attention Echoes of a Wet Finger by young Vitória Cribb at Farol Santander, a strident testimony to the fusion between technology and identity in which new digital aesthetics reconfigure our perception and interaction with art. In this work, the 22-year-old artist, a critical success, metamorphoses her interiority and inserts the viewer into a dystopian sensory immersion, by narrating a furious attack that destabilizes the boundaries between the human and the bestial. Within this dreamlike territory, she creates her avatar, right there where the digital and the organic collide without distinction between dream and wakefulness. The protagonist is absorbed by a whirlwind of dissociation, facing traumas and delusions that spread like a virus of corrupted data. There is no escape. As she comments: “There is no firewalls against the inevitable”.
Also in the same building, the most famous name of this edition appears, Nam June Paik (South Korea, 1932-2006), the magical pioneer of video art and video installation. A key figure in the avant-garde of the 1960s and 70s, he is honored by the Biennale, which exhibits a video/performance, made with a single channel, a psychedelic dance with movements captured by the senses. Paik was honored at the Venice Biennale and has had memorable retrospectives at the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim. His works are part of the collections of MoMA, the Smithsonian, the Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea, and many other institutions around the world.
The issue of time is present in several works. Chilean artist Nicole L'Huillier presents one of the highlights of the 14th Mercosur Biennial: Compass, a sculpture inspired by gyroscopes that investigate navigation and vibrational tuning. With a central silicone membrane that simultaneously captures and emits sounds, the work reflects on dualities and reciprocities, incorporating influences from Andean principles and polyrhythmic narratives. Interactive and unstable, Compass responds to the wind and the sounds of visitors, transforming itself into a space for collective experimentation and sensory resonance.
In the contemporary world, collaboration between institutions is essential to broaden the reach of art. In this edition, the Mercosul Biennial joins forces with Projeto Ling, which maintains a permanent space for exhibiting works by different artists. Curated by Paulo Henrique Silva, this year the project welcomes the artist from Mato Grosso Gervane de Paula, who presents a new mural marked by emblematic elements of the culture of the Central-West, with emphasis on the central figure of a caramel horse. For him, his participation in the Biennial has a meaning that goes beyond his individual trajectory. “My presence in this edition is a special moment not only for me, but for all artists from Mato Grosso who do not have the opportunity to show their work outside the rich region in which we live,” he says. He highlights the strength of agribusiness in the state, but criticizes the lack of incentives for culture. “We do not have a structured art circuit, there is a lack of galleries and collectors. My participation in this Biennial can bring about change.”
An experimental contemporaneity addresses the concept of synchronicity and its singularities in the work, Night and Day (I Think of You), at Santander. Cláudio Goulart, an artist who immigrated to Amsterdam at the age of 22, presents a video installation that combines different media to take the viewer on an immersive experience. Goulart evokes the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos, where the brightness of the stars resonates like an ancestral call. However, confined to the exhibition space, the work finds itself limited by its own borders, as it tries to expand towards galactic infinity. The result is a tension between the ambition of the unlimited and the reality of the physical contour, revealing the fragility of the human attempt to capture the immensity of the universe.
As part of a utopian, political/poetic narrative, Zé Carlos Garcia takes over the large entrance to the Iberê Camargo Museum. By occupying the large “hall” with pieces crafted in wood, he transforms the space into an expanded territory for his investigation. “I spent 16 years sculpting for samba schools, while also attending Parque Lage.”
Under the title Suite, the pieces, arranged almost in circles, evoke a silent dance and refer to the musical suite, in which the same tone resonates in different movements. However, behind the apparent softness, there is a latent disturbance. His figures challenge the integrity of the body: deformations, unexpected intersections, languages that emerge to connect with other heads, establishing a game between communication and the dissolution of identity. “The wood is extracted from my conscious forest management area, and I use invasive trees”, he argues. Arte Suite dialogues with Solitude (1994), an unfinished painting by Iberê Camargo, made towards the end of his life. If he tensioned the pictorial space with spectral figures, Garcia does so three-dimensionally, sculpting bodies that oscillate between presence and dissolution, between poetry and restlessness.
No mesmo local, a jovem Maya Weishof (1993) exibe pinturas quase alegóricas, aproximando-as da realidade apreendida no cotidiano, trabalhando-as sobre superfícies como tela e tecidos. A artista utiliza de fragmentos, distorções, caricaturas e criaturas híbridas na concepção de imagens de corpos e paisagem — numa abordagem tão meticulosa e multifacetada quanto o trabalho de um ghostwriter doktorarbeit (escritor fantasma de tese de doutorado, em alemão), que combina pesquisa profunda e construção imaginativa.
The official representation of this edition includes around 77 artists from 35 countries, with works spread across the four corners of the city, both in the upper class neighborhoods and in the outskirts, to bring the Biennial closer to those who live further away. To face this task, Raphael counted on the experience of Thiago Sant'Ana, curator and visual artist. “He was born in Santo Antônio de Jesus and lives in Salvador. Sant'Ana stands out for his work on projects both inside and outside Brazil, including frequent collaborations in São Paulo”, says Raphael Fonseca. Sant'Ana has a broad view of Brazilian artistic production and, according to the curator, contributed significantly to the group discussions. “The other invited curators also added depth to the project”, says Raphael.
The festive vibe of this edition pulsates in the heart of the city, where Peruvian artist Fátima Rodrigo transforms the urban space into a large interactive stage. Her installations come to life between karaoke and dance floors, spreading energy in the Pop Center and Espaço Força e Luz. In this playful circuit, the Hip Hop Culture Museum joins the celebration, reinforcing the spirit of collectivity and expression. Fátima tries to break away from the routine of the traditional artistic circuit, seeking new dialogues and experiences. “I am inspired by music and dance as forces of celebration and social coexistence, as well as the vibrant aesthetics of popular TV shows in Latin America,” she explains. Her interventions are open invitations: pedestrians and visitors become protagonists, integrating their scenes and transforming everyday life into a living spectacle, where art, body and city merge into a single movement.
Valerie Brathwaite, one of the great names in art in Central America (Trinidad and Tobago), remains active at 87 years old and traveled to Porto Alegre to attend the Biennial and follow the installation of Soft Bodies, his imposing installation composed of oversized pieces. Despite his age, he continues to create large-scale sculptures, exploring three-dimensionality through filled fabrics that gain volume and shape. Arranged on the floor of the Iberê Camargo Museum, his works break with the rigidity of the sculptural tradition, evoking the flexibility and malleability of bodies in interaction, their reactions, adaptations and transformations in the face of clashes between themselves and with the space around them.
Photography finds a unique expression in the work of American artist Paul Mpagi Sepuya (1982), whose visual investigation challenges traditional conventions of the medium by exploring queer identities, intimacy, and the mechanisms of image construction. His work unfolds in a sophisticated interplay of self-image, reflection, community, pose, fiction, and masculinity, expanding into immersive exhibitions, installations, and photobooks. Internationally recognized, his collection is part of some of the most prestigious institutions in the world, such as the Guggenheim, Hammer Museum, LACMA, MoMA, Stedelijk Museum, and Tate Modern.
Randolpho Lamonier, also fascinated by the world of images, works in various media, with special emphasis on textile art, painting, video and installation. His work General Theory of Atomic Babalu is configured as a magical space, dominated by a vibrant shade of pink, where words and images are in constant dialogue. In this sensorial environment, themes ranging from micro to macro politics intertwine with chronicles, diaries and intersections between memory and fiction. Her work has been part of exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as the Denver Art Museum, MASP and Another Space, in New York.
The most exciting thing about this edition is seeing the Biennial once again occupying iconic spaces in the city, such as the Farol Santander and the Rio Grande do Sul Art Museum, and bringing back the hustle and bustle of the Gasômetro Plant, all of which were severely affected by last year's catastrophe. As co-curator of the 2nd and 3rd editions alongside Fábio Magalhães, I remember how much it hurt me to see such a rich heritage swallowed up by the waters. Now that the work is over, I return to São Paulo with a light heart, happy to witness this revival.
