The River is a Serpent

Bringing into practice the debate about the access economies, reflect on the politics and poetics of exhibition, investigate which solidarity strategies are possible, as well as what is said by the bodies that, inhabiting asymmetric power structures, produce an immense world outside the world. This is the proposal of the 3rd edition of Frestas – Triennial of Arts, whose exhibition, with curatorship of the trio Beatriz Lemos, Diane Lima and Thiago de Paula Souza, will take part from August 21, 2021, to January 30, 2022, in the SESC Sorocaba unit (a city 90 km from São Paulo, Brazil). This Frestas’ edition also relies upon the curatorship assistance of Camila Fontenele and educational coordination of Renata Sampaio.

The curatorship has selected 54 artists and collectives from different nationalities to take part in the exhibition. They come from Brazil, South Africa, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, United States, France, The Netherlands, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic and Switzerland and exhibit works through the most different mediums, from paintings to installations and performances. From these, 33 were selected to create commissioned and unprecedented works for the project, and there are names like Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Dalton Paula, Denilson Baniwa, Diego Araúja, Gê Viana, Lia García (La Novia Sirena), Renata Lucas, Sallisa Rosa and Sucata Quântica, Ventura Profana and Vijai Patchineelam, among others.

Originally expected to be open to public in 2020, the Triennial happened to start, at that moment, with several formative actions in the digital environment, such as a Study Program, attended by fifteen artists from this edition; The River is a Serpent: Topics for Difference and Social Justice, a training program for teachers; and the Subaltern Practices-Oriented Program (POPS), conducted by the artistic collective Ayllu.

Now the institution is preparing itself to set up the exhibition which will occupy the SESC unit and the public spaces of the city of Sorocaba.

Complete list of artists of the 3rd Trennial (place of birth / place of residence):
Aimée Zito Lema (Amsterdam, The Netherlands / Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Ana Pi (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil / Paris, France) and Maria Fernanda Novo (Olímpia, São Paulo, Brazil / Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil)
Antonio Társis (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil / Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and London, United Kingdom)
Bronwyn Katz (Kimberley, South Africa / Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa)
Carmézia (Maloca do Japó, Roraima, Brazil / Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil)
Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro (Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil / Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil)
ColetivA Ocupação (São Paulo, Brazil / São Paulo, Brazil)
Colectivo Ayllu (several, Latin America / Madrid, Spain)
Dalton Paula (Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil / Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil)
Davi de Jesus do Nascimento (Pirapora, Minas Gerais, Brazil / Pirapora, Minas Gerais, Brazil)
Davi Pontes (São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Wallace Ferreira (Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Denilson Baniwa (Barcelos, Amazonas, Brazil / Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Denise Alves-Rodrigues (Itaporã, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil / São Paulo, Brazil)
Diego Araúja (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil / Salvador, Bahia, Brazil)
Ella Vieira (Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil / Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil)
Elvira Espejo (ayllu Qaqachaka, Oruro, Bolivia / La Paz, Bolivia)
Engel Leonardo (Baní, Dominican Republic / Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
Fernando Palma Rodríguez (San Pedro Atocpan, Mexico / Agricultural Region of Milpa Alta, Mexico)
Gê Viana (Santa Luzia, Maranhão, Brazil / São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil)
Guerreiro do Divino Amor (Geneva, Switzerland / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Haseeb Ahmed (Toledo, Ohio, USA / Brussels, Belgium)
Iagor Peres (Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil)
Ivan Henriques (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Jaider Esbell (Normandia, Roraima, Brazil / Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil)
Johanna Unzueta (Santiago, Chile / Berlin, Germany)
Jonas van Holanda (Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil / Geneva, Switzerland)
Jota Mombaça (Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil / Lisbon, Portugal)
Juliana dos Santos (São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil / São Paulo, Brazil)
Julien Creuzet (Le Blanc-Mesnil, France / Montreuil, France)
Lais Machado (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil / Salvador, Bahia, Brazil)
Laura Lima (Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Lia García (La Novia Sirena) (Mexico City, Mexico / Mexico City, Mexico)
Luana Vitra (Contagem, Minas Gerais, Brazil / Belo Horizonte and Contagem, Minas Gerais, Brazil)
Madalena dos Santos Reinbolt (Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil / Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 1977)
Marepe (Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil / Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil)
Mário Lopes (São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil / Munich, Germany, and Helsinki, Finland)
Musa Michelle Mattiuzzi (São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil / Berlin, Germany)
Negalê Jones (Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Magé, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil )
Noara Quintana (Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil / São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil)
Nohemí Pérez (Tibú, Colombia / Bogotá, Colombia)
Paulo Nazareth (Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil / lives and works throughout the world)
Pêdra Costa (Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Berlin, Germany)
Pedro Victor Brandão (Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Rebeca Carapiá (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil / Salvador, Bahia, Brazil)
Renata Lucas (Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil / São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Rommulo Conceição (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil / Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
Sabelo Mlangeni (Driefontein, Mpumalanga, South Africa / Johannesburg, South Africa)
Sallisa Rosa (Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Sucata Quântica (São Paulo, Brazil / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Shirley Villavicencio Pizango (Lima, Peru / Lima, Peru)
Tabita Rezaire (Paris, France / Vincennes, France)
Thiago Martins de Melo (São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil / São Luís, Maranhão and São Paulo, Brazil, and Guadalajara, Mexico)
Ventura Profana (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Vijai Patchineelam (Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Belgium)
Zumvi Arquivo Fotográfico (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil)

Complete list of artists with commissioned works

Aimée Zito Lema; Ana Pi and Maria Fernanda Novo; Antonio Társis; Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro; Dalton Paula; Davi de Jesus do Nascimento; Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira; Denilson Baniwa; Denise Alves-Rodrigues; Diego Araúja; Ella Vieira; Gê Viana; Haseeb Ahmed; Iagor Peres; Jonas van Holanda; Jota Mombaça; Juliana dos Santos; Lais Machado; Lia García (La Novia Sirena); Luana Vitra; Mário Lopes; Musa Michelle Mattiuzzi; Negalê Jones; Noara Quintana; Paulo Nazareth; Pedro Victor Brandão; Rebeca Carapiá; Renata Lucas; Rommulo Conceição; Sallisa Rosa and Sucata Quântica; Thiago Martins de Melo; Ventura Profana; Vijai Patchineelam.

The river is a serpent

By questioning the limits between what is negotiable and unnegotiablewhen producing a contemporaryart exhibition in the present times, the curatorship trio invited by SESCinvestigates, in the Triennial, the possibilities, strengths, and challenges passing through multiple natural, spiritual, and subjective ecosystems, gathering a set of technologies forged by other bodies that, in different historical times and places, were conditioned to negotiate permanencies and accesses as the only way to ensure the maintenance of their existences.

The serpent as an extended metaphor due to its great cosmology in the most different mythical and cultural narratives acts as a glance to discuss the non-linear time and the effects of the multiple contradictions unlocked by the neoliberal capital’s advance, and the systemic processes of subjective capture as value generation and reenactment of a colonial ethics.

From the curves of the navigated rivers during the curators’ research travel in October2019, arrived the words full of images giving name to the title-spark of the 3rd edition of Frestas. According to the curatorship trio, “it was the forms serpentined through a non-linear time that helped us translate the unattainable experiences of the contracts, conflicts, and agreements we live, as well as the solidarity strategies put in practice by all of those who are part of the Frestas’ platform. The river is a serpent because it hides and camouflages, and between the unpredictable and mystery creates strategies within its own movement”.

The research for this 3rd edition has begun with the processes of hearing and exchange withdifferent cultural agents from Sorocaba and its region, expanding to Boa Vista and the indigenous land Raposa-Serra do Sol, in Roraima; Manaus and the Tupana river surroundings, in Amazonas; Belém, in Pará; Serra da Capivara National Park, in Piauí; Alcântara and São Luís, in Maranhão.

By flowing into Sorocaba, The river is a serpent reengage the dialogue with the city as articulates views to its geographies and possibilities of impact, memory, and meeting with agents, collectives, groups, artists, independent cultural centers, radios, and community libraries. In this manner, it creates new scenarios questioning how codes and languages are created, and what mechanisms collude with the maintenance of infrastructures that regulates the power dynamics, legitimate discourses, condition accesses, lock the critique, and forge an idea of pacification and consensus.

Frestas – Triennial of Arts

Frestas is a triennial initiative structured in three axis – public program, publications,and exhibition – forming the vast cultural schedule produced by SESC São Paulo. It is mostly a transdisciplinary platform promoting new acting and reflections upon a wider field within the visual arts, and also bringing the attention of the audience and the circuit in a more decentralized fashion. Frestas addresses passage, crack, rupture. It is an opening to a new democratic place for action.

In order to bring together local artists with regional and international productions, and to reestablish the dialogue among social issues typical of the Brazilian context and the reflections on the global sphere, the Triennial presents, since October2020, an in-presence and online public programming, debates and workshops -activities promoting different discussions within the contemporary art field -and, from August, 2021, will launch publications and the exhibition’s inauguration.

The project takesplace at SESC unit located in Sorocaba, at 100 kilometers from São Paulo’sstate capital. Since 2014, the Triennial of Arts has been dedicating itself to discuss and raise questions about the urgent issues guiding our lives nowadays. Due to the program’s dimension and relevance, Frestas has been collaborating with extending the contemporary artistic scenario in the state of São Paulo. In addition, Frestas has been contributing to the training of art-educators, and to the creation of networks for culture professionals outside the capitals, thus locally stimulating art in the state’s countryside as well as the decentralization of cultural activities.

Frestas is held by SESC São Paulo and, in this edition, is supported by the General Consulate of France in São Paulo, Pro Helvetia Swiss Foundation for Culture, PlattformPLUS, Kulturreferat Munchen, AVEK, Kenno Filmi, Aue-Stiftung, and Sorocaba’s City Hall.

frestas.sescsp.org.br