"For the first time we are proudly going to Luanda. On September 19th, the itinerary arrives at the Guimarães Rosa Institute and symbolizes an important moment in the history of the Biennale, which seeks to expand its reach and promote cultural dialogues between the country [Angola] and Brazil", says a statement released this Tuesday by the organizers of the São Paulo Biennial.
The international tour of the 35th biennale – which included Portuguese artist Grada Kilomba in the group of four curators – has already visited Argentina and Bolivia this year.
The 35th São Paulo Biennial took place between September and December 2023 under the theme "Choreographies of the Impossible" and featured more than a thousand works of different languages created by 121 artists, including the Angolan Januário Jano and the Portuguese Carlos Bunga and Raquel Lima.
The artists were challenged to "give a voice to diasporas and native peoples, expanding local and international dialogue", according to the program of that contemporary art event.
The title of the biennial was "created as an invitation to radical imaginations regarding the unknown, or even what appears within the framework of im/possibilities", as stated in the curatorial text released before the opening.
The curators mainly selected artists from Brazil, but also from countries such as Mexico, the United States of America, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, Ghana, the Philippines, Guatemala, Ghana, Lebanon and South Africa.
