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.
PAULO HERKENHOFF — Curator, author, critic, and art historian, his posts have included cultural director of the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR, 2012–2016); curator-general of the 24th Bienal de São Paulo (1998); curator of the Brazilian pavilion at the 47th Venice Biennale (1997); associate curator of the department of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art New York (1999–2002); and consultant to documenta IX, Kassel, Germany (1991).
NYDIA GUTIERREZ — Museologist, independent curator, author, and architect, Gutierrez lectures at the Universidad Nacional de Bogotá, and was chief curator of the Museo de Antioquia (2012–2019). She was curator and museological advisor on the 12th Encounter of Young Artists at FIA-Caracas (2010), among others.
FERNANDA D’AGOSTINO — Coordinator of the museological collection center at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, D’Agostino was assistant curator on the 28th Bienal de São Paulo (2008) and supervisor on the project to reorganize the storage, organization, access, and publicity/ promotion systems at the Pinacoteca (2011–2012).