The extraterritorial zone: the 26th Sao Paulo Bienal featured an indoor sculpture garden and a curatorial concept of "image smuggling" between cultures

Art in America, Feb, 2005 by Edward Leffingwell

The 26th Bienal of Sao Paulo did not fail to stimulate the international conversation of contemporary art in Brazil. For several months every two years, the Bienal enjoys the sort of celebrity available in the Land of Football. A series of panel discussions convened in a new theater in the basement of the pavilion encouraged the participation of artists, curators and critics. The infusion of art icons that gave past editions art-historical weight, such as specially conceived exhibitions of Picasso and Goya, was conspicuously absent, which was the source of some disdain. If Hug's metaphorical theme seemed to have paled in the light of Bienal topics of recent memory--the dematerialization of the art object and the rupture with the traditional support come to mind--it found its own resonance within this warren of installations, photographs, painting and videos, lucid, self-referential and open for interpretation.

1. The Bienal is, in the scope of its program, second to Venice's. However, with its 670,000 visitors, the Bienal's previous installment laid claim to the largest audience for any contemporary art exhibition in the world. As of this writing, attendance for the 2004 exhibition was projected at one million.

2. The former head of the Department of Visual Arts of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Hug is curator and director of the Goethe Institut in Rio de Janeiro. Since 1984, he has organized and coordinated exhibitions in Europe, Africa and Latin America.

3. The poem, by the Chinese monk Huineng, concludes "AS there is nothing from the first/Where does the dust collect itself?" The room is accessed by a viewing platform of wood and pipe scaffolding.

The 26th Bienal de Sao Paulo was on view Sept. 25-Dec. 19, 2004, at the Pavilhao Ciccillo Matarazzo, Parque do Ibirapuera, Sao Paulo.

Author: Edward Leffingwell is A.i.A.'s corresponding editor for Brazil.