Brazil 2025

Title: (Re)Invention
Commissioner: Andrea Pinheiro, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
Curators: Luciana Saboia, Eder Alencar, Matheus Seco (Plano Coletivo)

The project draws on the recent archaeological discovery of ancestral infrastructure in the Amazon to consider contradictions and question the socio-environmental conditions of the contemporary city. Represented in two acts, the exhibition builds a narrative that spans times and territories. In the first act, the exhibition shows how, over 10,000 years ago, Indigenous peoples shaped the landscapes around them, creating sophisticated infrastructures that integrated technical knowledge and strategies for adapting to the environment. The second act shifts the focus to contemporary Brazil, exploring the relationship between architecture and infrastructure, as well as the possibilities of re-signifying the city through a curation of architectural research, processes, and practices. The focus is on recognising and valuing design strategies and operations that are “encapsulated” in ingenious existing production, inherited and appropriated.