Frestas—Triennial of Arts 2025

Sesc SP announces the fourth edition of Frestas—Triennial of Arts for the third quarter of 2025 at Sesc Sorocaba. This initiative is part of the institution’s extensive cultural agenda in the countryside of São Paulo State, aiming to expand access to cultural assets, strengthen local and regional partnerships, and foster the contemporary art scene in the region.

Over three editions, Frestas—Triennial of Arts has become an artistic platform for curatorial research, encompassing exhibitions and transdisciplinary activities. Since its inception in 2014, the project has showcased 213 artists, including 49 international participants, attracting an estimated audience of 243,000 people.

Consolidating itself as a robust educational project, the exhibition has organized training programs for teachers and social educators, welcoming approximately 30,000 students from public and private schools in the city of Sorocaba and neighboring cities.

The curatorship of the fourth edition will be led by three women researchers: Luciara Ribeiro, Naine Terena, and Khadyg Fares.

Luciara Ribeiro is an educator, researcher, and curator with a Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Salamanca (Spain) and the Federal University of São Paulo. She has worked in various educational, artistic, and cultural institutions and currently serves as the artistic director of Sertão Negro Ateliê e Escola de Artes (GO). Naine Terena, a curator and artist-educator, holds a PhD in Education from PUC-SP and a Master’s in Art from UnB (DF). She has worked on art circuits both in Brazil and abroad and is currently a researcher at the Federal University of Mato Grosso. Khadyg Fares, a PhD candidate in Art History at the Federal University of São Paulo, is an educator, researcher, and curator with experience in institutional and independent projects. 

The selection of this trio is based on their individual research on territoriality, aligning with one of the project’s core principles: recognizing the countryside of São Paulo as a vibrant artistic production hub. The aim is to develop a curatorial vision rooted in the Sorocaba region, extending nationally and globally to foster aesthetic and conceptual dialogues that redefine discussions on decoloniality and the persistent empire-colony dynamics in the symbolic valuation of the arts between capital cities and the countryside. 

Learn more about Frestas and its previous editions at Frestas—Sesc São Paulo.

Previous editions
First edition (2014) 
What Would the World Be Without Things That Do Not Exist?
Conceived and curated by Josué Mattos, this edition was structured around a question inspired by the 2006 theatrical production What Would Become of Us Without Things That Do Not Exist? by Lume Teatro. The exhibition treated “things that do not exist” not as an opposition to reality but as a persistent force within it. 

Second Edition (2017) 
Between Post-Truths and Events
Curated by Daniela Labra, this edition addressed the ambiguities of contemporary life as reflected in the arts, exploring the concept of post-truth at a time when fake news was beginning to shape the Brazilian social imagination. 

Third Edition (2021–22) 
The River is a Serpent
Curated by Beatriz Lemos, Diane Lima, and Thiago de Paula Souza, this edition examined mechanisms of exclusion and privilege, guided by the worldviews of Global South communities in an anti-colonial and anti-racist movement.