Practices of Attention: international symposium

Commissioned by the Bienal de São Paulo in partnership with Sesc-SP, this three-day international, public symposium brings together artists, scientists, critics, writers, and scholars for a ranging, interdisciplinary inquiry into one of the major issues of our time: attention. The program is conceived by D. Graham Burnett and Stefanie Hessler.

At the heart of the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo is a commitment to “reaffirm the power of art as a unique place to focus attention in, to, and for the world.” This distinctive vision—placing economies of attention at the center of our relationship to works of art—marks the urgency of the question of attention in our moment. Attention lies at the nexus of perception and action, aesthetics and ethics, wealth and power. Whose eyes (and minds) are where, why, and for how long? These are central questions driving the evolution of “surveillance capitalism,” not to mention social life itself. New technologies and practices are reshaping our understanding of the attentional subject—with consequences for learning, politics, and collective existence.

With an eye on these pressing issues, this public symposium of talks, workshops, and performances entitled Practices of Attention draws on recent theoretical work, historical recoveries, and experimental investigations. It brings together key thinkers of our time in a varied and engaging program to dive deeper into and investigate from different angles the modes, conditions, and challenges to attention today.

Day 1: November 16, 9am–7pm 
Sesc Vila Mariana and Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo 

Day 2: November 17, 9am–10:30pm 
Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo 

Day 3: November 18, 9am–6pm 
Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo 

Participants
D. Graham Burnett, Professor of History and History of Science at Princeton University (USA); Vivian Caccuri, Artist (Brazil); Luiza Crosman, Artist (Brazil); Jeff Dolven, Poet and Professor of English at Princeton University (USA); ESTAR(SER) — The Esthetical Society for Transcendental and Applied Realization, international research collective; Joanna Fiduccia, Professor of Art History at Reed College (USA); Maria Cristina Franco Ferraz, Professor of Technologies of Communication and Aesthetics at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Ivone Gebara, Catholic Nun, Ecofeminist (Brazil); Yael Geller, Writer (Israel); Tamar Guimarães, Artist (Brazil); Catherine Hansen, Professor of Comparative Literature at University of Tokyo (Japan); Tamara Henderson, Artist (Canada); Stefanie Hessler, Curator and Writer (UK/Greece); Katarzyna Kasia, Professor of Philosophy at Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw (Poland); Virginia Kastrup, Professor of Psychology at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Kapwani Kiwanga, Artist (Canada); Isabel Lewis, Artist (Dominican Republic); Marcos Lutyens, Artist (UK/USA); Raimundas Malašauskas, Artist and Curator (Lithuania); Bruno Moreschi, Artist (Brazil); Yasemin Nur, Artist (Turkey); Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, Curator (Spain/USA); Sal Randolph, Artist (USA); Thiago Rocha Pitta, Artist (Brazil); Rafael Sánchez-Mateos Paniagua, Artist (Spain); Aki Sasamoto, Artist (Japan/USA); Helen Singh-Miller, Feldenkrais certified practitioner and Film Study Center Fellow at Harvard University (USA).

For the full program, please visit the 33rd Bienal’s website.

Attendance by registration only. To register, click here.