FRIEZE | 'Various Earths': On the 35th Bienal de São Paulo

Marko Gluhaich, FRIEZE, Settembre 15, 2023
In their statement to accompany ‘Choreographies of the Impossible’, the four curators of the 35th Bienal de São Paulo – Manuel Borja Villel, Grada Kilomba, Diane Lima and Hélio Menezes – refer to their methodology as ‘horizontal’. Elsewhere, in the catalogue, they’ve described their decision-making process as driven not by consensus but by dissensus. This emphasis could suggest a dialectical technique that would highlight the unique interests and expertise of the curatorial team or it might simply be a way of telling the audience that they couldn’t agree on much. I wish they would have admitted the latter, as that’s the experience you feel navigating their impressive yet scattered, frustrating yet significant exhibition, the fragmentary nature of which serves as a boon to its decolonial, transhistorical enterprise.
 
The first and second floors are dominated by installations – including some great ones by Julien Creuzet (Zumbi, Zumbi Eterno, 2023), Igshaan Adams (Samesyn, 2023) and Daniel Lie (Outres, 2023) – paired with smaller rooms dedicated mostly to video and photographic work. The contrast felt awkward, despite these more intimate spaces containing some of my favourite art of the entire biennial: Dayanita Singh’s jubilant photographic series ‘Museum of Dance: Mother Loves to Dance’ (2021); Rosa Gauditano’s shots of underground lesbian clubs in São Paulo (‘Forbidden Lives’, c.1970s); Citra Sasmita’s feminist canvases done with a traditional Balinese technique (‘Timur Merah’, 2023–ongoing). Conversely, a Dan Flavin knock-off by Kapwani Kiwanga was anomalous and disappointing (pink-blue, 2017) and a painting by Sidney Amaral (The Foreigner, 2011) felt unintentionally lonely. These isolated artist presentations seemed to be positioned as mini, incomplete exhibitions, removed from the overall context of the biennial – not of a piece with the dialogue ostensibly being promoted by the exhibition design.
 
The 35th Bienal de São Paulo is on view until 10 December.