Editorial Platform
October 9, 2019–February 2, 2020
The presence of nationalism as a means to understanding the disputes that mark our time. That is the background of the 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil | Imagined Communities, which runs through February 2, 2020, at Sesc 24 de Maio, in São Paulo, comprising over 60 works and two collections—among video, painting, photography and installation—produced by 55 artists from 28 countries.
The Biennial is divided into three platforms: exhibition, public programs and publications, with two printed bilingual publications comprising its editorial platform.
The catalog, Livro de Artista, is formatted like an artist’s book, with essays by three guest authors—Gladys Tzul Tzul, Bonaventure Ndikung and Erica Moiah. The PDF version is available for consultation and free download at bienalsescvideobrasil.org.br.
Gathering essays from Amara Moira, Clarissa Diniz, Guilherme Wisnik, João Silverio Trevisan, Juliana Borges, Laymert Garcia dos Santos, Lucy Lippard, Márcio Seligmann-Silva, Maria Rita Khel, Mariana Cavalcanti, Mario Caro, Marisa Florido, Peter Pál Pelbart and Vladimir Safatle, Livro de Leituras [Book of Readings] will be launched on January and also made available online. The book comprises a selection of articles arising from the talks and debates held last October and November and it’s the third volume from a series that also includes “A Multiple Community” (2018) and “Perspectives For Other Geographies of Thought” (2015).
“Coming from different fields of knowledge and backgrounds, and addressing a range of questions, the multiple voices gathered here share a common perspective. They all pit themselves against a kamikaze project that is working toward a world without forests, without books and without imagination,” writes the invited curator Luisa Duarte.
To Juliana Braga de Mattos, Sesc São Paulo’s visual arts and technology manager, the seminars and the resulting publication will serve to “denaturalize worldviews, critically revise the past and give way to the necessary counter-hegemonic perspectives.”
About Videobrasil
Videobrasil is an art platform and cultural association that researches and disseminates art produced in regions of the world’s geopolitical South—Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Created and directed by Solange Farkas, it is part of a network of initiatives that includes exhibitions and art shows, publications, documentaries, meetings and artistic residencies.
About SESC
Sesc – Serviço Social do Comércio [Social Service of Commerce] is a non-profit private institution created in 1946 by entrepreneurs in the retail and services sectors, and is present all over Brazil. In the state of São Paulo, Sesc has 40 units, mostly facilities that offer activities related to culture, education, sports, leisure and health. Its initiatives are guided by educational purposes and the pursuit of social welfare based on a broad understanding of culture.
Artistic director: Solange Farkas
Curatorial team: Gabriel Bogossian, Luisa Duarte and Miguel López
Livro de Artista and Livro de Leituras
Editorial coordinator: Teté Martinho
Design: Celso Longo + Daniel Trench
