Pooling voices sensitive to contemporary impasses, drawn from different fields, fronts, and backgrounds, the Seminars explore such themes as the invention of a new political imagination, the particularities of time that have emerged since the advent of virtual life, a de-colonial approach to current feminisms, and the reverberation of the symbolic production of indigenous peoples and social movements.
A central axis on which the Public Programs are plotted at the 21st Biennial, the meetings are designed to generate opportunities to produce previously unheard-of forms of thinking the future, both around and beyond the works on display, and with room for discussion and dissension.
The Seminars are held at the Theater (lower ground) and Auditorium (6th floor), in two stages, spanning three consecutive evenings apiece. The first takes place between October 15 and 17, and the second, November 12 and 15. In the interests of more thorough access, all sessions will have simultaneous translation in sign language.
The addresses prepared by the speakers were edited for publication under the title Leituras [Readings], which, along with the catalogue of works and artists, completes the 21st Biennial's editorial platform.
CLARISSA DINIZ — Curator and lecturer at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage. Former editor of the art criticism magazine Tatuí (2006–2015), guest curator of the Centre for Curatorial Leadership, MoMA (2014), and co-curator of various exhibitions, including Museu do Homem do Nordeste (MAR, 2014) and À Nordeste (Sesc 24 de Maio, 2019).
SUELY ROLNIK — Psychoanalyst, critic, curator, and professor at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, she researches the field of contemporary art and the politics of subjectivization in diverse contexts. Her published works include Transformações contemporâneas do desejo (Estação Liberdade, 1989) and, with Félix Guattari, Micropolítica. Cartografias do desejo (Vozes, 1986).
JULIANA BRAGA — Historian specializing in museology with a master’s degree in management and public policy. She is head of the Department of the Visual Arts and Technology at Sesc São Paulo, where she has been working since 2000. She coordinates and supervises the Sesc network’s visual arts program statewide.