Incerteza viva. Bienal de São Paulo Announces Preliminary Artist List for 2016 Edition

“Incerteza viva”, the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo means to reflect on the current conditions of life and the strategies offered by contemporary art to harbor or inhabit uncertainty.

“Art feeds off uncertainty, chance, improvisation, speculation and, at the same time, it attempts to count the uncountable and measure the immeasurable. It makes room for error, for doubt and risk – even for ghosts and the most profound misgivings within all of us, but without evading or manipulating them,” says curator Jochen Volz. Co-curators Gabi Ngcobo (South Africa), Júlia Rebouças (Brazil), Lars Bang Larsen (Denmark) and Sofía Olascoaga (Mexico) round out the curatorial team.

The exhibition sets out to trace cosmological thinking, ambient and collective intelligence, and systemic and natural ecologies. “In order for us to objectively confront the big questions of our time, such as global warming and its impact on our habitat, the extinction of species and the loss of biological and cultural diversity, economic and political instability, injustice in the distribution of the earth’s natural resources and global migration, among others, perhaps it’s necessary to detach uncertainty from fear.” Volz proceeds.

Seeking to actively participate in the continuous and collective construction of the Ibirapuera Park as a public space, the exhibition sees itself as an extension of the garden inside the pavilion. Conversely, numerous artistic projects will be commissioned for the park. The firm Álvaro Razuk Arquitetura has been invited to develop the exhibit’s architectural project and exhibition displays.