Collective exhibition "More beautiful is the river that flows"

As part of the prior programming of Sesc Winter Festival 2026, Cultural Center Sesc Quitandinha, in Petrópolis, opens the exhibition “More beautiful is the river that flows.", with free admission until February 2027. Curated by Marcelo Campos and curatorial assistance Rodrigo DuarteThe exhibition brings together more than 100 works by over 40 South American and other continental artists in different artistic languages ​​to reflect on rivers as spaces of encounter, memory, resistance, and transformation.

Starting from the image of rivers meeting, “More beautiful is the river that flows” takes confluence as its central concept. When two rivers meet, they can flow side by side for some time, preserving distinct colors and densities before combining. Even united, they do not cease to carry their origins. Confluence, in this sense, is understood as an encounter that expands, strengthens, and transforms, without erasing differences.

In dialogue with the poetics of Alberto Caeiro and the thought of Antônio Bispo dos Santos, the exhibition emerges from the meanders of the waters and flows through the confluence of knowledge, people, and temporalities. The proposal directly engages with the concept of the 2026 Sesc Winter Festival, which celebrates the verb "to flow" as a gesture of encounter. By taking the confluence of rivers as a metaphor, the exhibition broadens this debate to consider the relationships between art, nature, and society, valuing the coexistence of different knowledges, territories, and ways of existing.

This dialogue also extends to literature, with the participation of important contemporary authors who contribute unpublished texts specially developed for the exhibition. Texts by Leda Maria Martins, Jeferson Tenório, Itamar Vieira Junior, and Marcia Kambeba are included. Their writings deepen the reflections proposed by the exhibition, bringing perspectives on memory, territory, ancestry, and ways of being.

“More beautiful is the flowing river” brings together artists and works from different territories, mainly from Latin America, including Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina, Guatemala and French Guiana, as well as countries like Lebanon and Lithuania. In common, the works observe border areas and recognize rivers as living entities, fundamental for the maintenance of biodiversity, ecosystems and the cycles of life.

Among the highlights is a new installation by Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar, conceived for the dome of the Sesc Quitandinha Cultural Center. The exhibition also includes immersive experiences linked to kinetic art that engage with names such as Julio Le Parc and Carlos Cruz-Diez, in light and movement installations that invite the public to experience sensory sensations similar to the "banzeiro," an Amazonian term associated with the intense movement of water and the state of vertigo it causes.

Another highlight is the installation Serpentes (Serpents), by Jaider Esbell, which will occupy the lake at the Sesc Quitandinha Cultural Center for the first time. Composed of inflatable sculptures, the work integrates the exhibition route and expands the relationship of the show with the landscape and the symbolic presence of water. The exhibition also includes artists such as Ayrson Heráclito, Caio Reisewitz, and Emilija Škarnulytė.

By bringing together artists, writers, and different perspectives on water, “More beautiful is the river that flows” invites the public to think of rivers not only as natural resources, but as living and indispensable presences. In times of climate crisis, the exhibition proposes imagining other forms of coexistence, more attentive to diversity, interdependence, and the continuity of life.