A Biennial that relates sound to space and bodies

C& América Latina: Could you tell us more about the concept of the 14th Mercosur Biennial, starting with the title Estalo?

Raphael Fonseca: Estalo (snap) is the conceptual kick-off of the 14th Mercosur Biennial. I think titles are interesting when they are polysemous. Estalo points to how the Covid-19 pandemic changed our lives in a snap of the finger, and how the image of an “estalo”, though ephemeral, involves the relationship between sound, space and the body — not just the human body — and also how the “estalo” is a marker of rhythm in its relationship with historical practices such as samba, jazz and Afro-Brazilian religions.

Yina Jiménez Suriel: One aspect of the “estalo” (snap) is that it registers something that has already happened or it is the catalyst for something that could happen in the present. This play on words therefore implies a temporal construction, which is not autonomous and does not exist from the singular, but is time in relation.

C&AL: You’ve been working on making the Biennial for some time now. Could you talk a bit about the role collaboration plays in your curatorial practice?

RF: When you deal with images, you are also dealing with other authors, beyond your own gaze. After two years of work, the best term to describe the relationship within this curatorial team and with the entire Mercosur Biennial Foundation team is “family”. Every act within the 14th Biennial is, to varying degrees, a collective act. And when there are disagreements, they always generate unexpected results, which is very healthy.

YJS: I like to think that collaboration is at the epicenter of every curatorial practice. I understand it in relation to the forms of life, entities, subjectivities and contexts with which I interact in order to generate thought or materialize ideas. In this sense, I also think of collaboration as a way of practicing love in some way, because we nurture each other, and this implies that the traces left by it can continue to exist and accompany us for the rest of our lives.

C&AL: Raphael, what makes curating the 14th Mercosur Biennial similar to or different from other large-scale projects you’ve organized?

RF: I curated the 1st Bienal do Barro do Brasil (2014), which is experimental in nature, and the 22nd Bienal Sesc_Videobrasil (2023), which has been around for 40 years. The Mercosur Biennial, built on the idea of an economic bloc, has the weight of tradition: there have been 13 editions since 1997. So, how do you put on a Biennial that understands its identity and geographical trajectory, but at the same time launches other perspectives? Estalo respects the event’s Latin American history and also broadens the voices of our choir, creating connections with other geographies, as well as featuring artists from various parts of Brazil.

C&AL: Yina, we met at the C& Critical Writing Workshop in Dallas, Texas (USA), where we talked about knowledge systems and creating spaces through language. What strategies can we expect in Estalo to expand the creation of meanings?

YJS: One strategy we can expect is that the notion of “estalo” (snap) is not being positioned as simply discursive, but as an intrinsic part of the operationality of this Biennial. “Estalo” as a strategy has repercussions on the way the Biennial will interact with the city of Porto Alegre and the state of Rio Grande do Sul, not only in terms of infrastructure and territorial devices, but also in the way it interacts with those who constitute the city and the state. This starts with the makeup of the curatorial team and the participation of a diverse range of cultural agents with an active role in the mediation of artistic practices — all the extended labels are written by historians, researchers and writers from the city and/or state — and in the conception and definition of the educational and public programs, in the institutions with which we are collaborating, in the design of the different editorial publications, as well as in how we access and discuss them. This is the first time the exhibition venues of the Biennial have left Porto Alegre’s city center.

C&AL: How have you been working with the Mercosur Biennial Foundation to contextualize the new reality of the 14th edition, imposed by the floods of May 2024?

RF: When the May floods occurred, the organization of the 14th Mercosur Biennial was quite advanced, as the Biennial was set to start in September, so we had to suspend our production work. Many people on the team live in Porto Alegre and witnessed the tragedy. The floods led us to review the very notion of “estalo” (snap). “Estalo” refers not only to the power of life, but also to the memory of death, the instability of the world’s ecosystems and the many dangers they face. Before the floods, we already had works that were somewhat pessimistic and melancholy. After the floods, perhaps this tone has been elevated in the general context of the Biennial.

C&AL: Are there any plans to address or remember what happened in any way?

RF: As I’ve said in other interviews, it’s inevitable that our Biennial be seen as the “biennial of the flood”. In any case, I am particularly against aestheticizing the tragedy and misery of others. I find it very comfortable for many contemporary artists who are in very privileged and powerful places to make works that appropriate pain, loss and tragedy in different parts of the world. In that sense, no, I don’t think our Biennial will be an event that illustrates these tragedies and other tragedies in the world. On the other hand, many of the works shown in Porto Alegre are reminders – some more subtle, others more forceful l– of the instability that the world has experienced for as long as it has existed.

I often feel that some curators and artists are looking for quick answers in the field of artistic creation for events like this. I am, unfortunately, more in favor of a longer period to digest and reflect, in order to avoid appropriations that only perpetuate different forms of violence.

May they be snaps of hope and desire for change. May our Biennial both make people reflect indirectly on what happened, and be an event that brings other topics and discussions to a population that, to a certain extent, also needs to be faced with images and narratives that take them away from the eternal memory of the tragedy.

This text is part of an editorial collaboration between salta art and C&AL.

The interview was conducted in two parts, before and after the tragic floods in May 2024, in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, home to the Mercosur Biennial, which will take place between March 27 and June 1, 2025.

Raphael Fonseca is chief curator of the 14th Mercosur Biennial in Porto Alegre and curator of Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art at the Denver Art Museum.

Yina Jiménez Suriel is adjunct curator of the 14th Mercosur Biennial and is the curator of The Current IV at TBA21-Academy. She is associate editor of Contemporary And Latin America (C&AL).

Michaela Blanc is resident wikimedist at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. She participated in the C& Critical Writing Workshop in Dallas.

Translation provided by Mercosul Biennale.