33rd São Paulo Biennial Embraces Horizontal Dialogue with Seven Artist-Curators

The 33rd São Paulo Biennial, opening September 7, 2018, radically rethinks its curatorial model by granting seven artist-curators complete autonomy to create their own exhibition nuclei without interference from the general curator or each other. General curator Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro selected these seven partners—Waltercio Caldas, Alejandro Cesarco, Antonio Ballester Moreno, Claudia Fontes, Mamma Anderson, and Sofia Borges—based on subjective criteria like the consistency of their work and ability to aggregate thoughts and works of other artists. Pérez-Barreiro knew only Caldas and Cesarco personally beforehand. In a deliberate strategy to prioritize public experience over discourse, the Biennial has withheld the complete artist list from the press and limited pre-opening access to the pavilion, aiming for surprise and a focus on the non-specialist audience of nearly 900,000 visitors. Pérez-Barreiro also selected twelve additional artists to punctuate the exhibition, aiming for diversity with quotas for gender, Brazilian representation, Latin American artists, and the rest of the world. The architectural project by Álvaro Razuk was chosen for its non-authorial approach, creating varied physical experiences across the pavilion, including a café on the second floor. The curator emphasizes that this edition seeks to be more delicate and lowered, avoiding spectacular gestures to guarantee the autonomy of each project.