21 Oct 2025

Visual essay in three parts: The installation of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo. Part 3, by Ilana Bar

Foto da montagem da Bienal, com uma lupa passando por uma cortina azul. — © Ilana Bar / Estúdio Garagem / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

Putting together an exhibition on the scale of a Bienal is a great challenge. To document this two-month process – from constructing the architecture with the installation of walls in the Pavilion to the final adjustments and the installation of artworks alongside the artists – we invited three photographers to capture details, faces, and moments of creation.

The third part of this visual essay, produced in August 25 at the Bienal Pavilion, is signed by Ilana Bar.

All photos: © Ilana Bar / Estúdio Garagem / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

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Foto de pessoas andando por um espaço expositivo com fotos e pinturas. — Installation view of the traveling exhibition of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Goiás, in Goiânia © Paulo Rezende / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

News14 Aug 2026

The traveling exhibitions program of the 36th Bienal expands across Brazil and reaches international destinations

With five traveling exhibitions of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice currently on view across Brazil, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo announces the next stages of the program, which will continue to six additional Brazilian cities and three international destinations over the coming months, reaching fifteen locations throughout 2026.

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Uma grande escultura que lembra um tronco de árvore com raízes, feita de longas tiras de tecido suspensas em tons de marrom, laranja e amarelo. Em sua base, várias pedras naturais estão dispostas sobre pequenas placas escuras no piso de concreto de uma galeria. — Installation view of *Terra viva* by Marlene Almeida during the 36th Bienal de São Paulo© Natt Fejfar / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

Interviews24 Jul 2026

Living Earth: Interview with Marlene Almeida

Earth samples collected from different regions of Brazil are processed into pigments or left in their raw state in a kind of laboratory. A sculpture composed of long strips of fabric dyed with natural pigments evokes a rock or a network of trails waiting to be explored. Technique and poetics come together in Terra viva [Living Earth] by Marlene Almeida, an installation created especially for the 36th Bienal de São Paulo. The work is now part of the Bienal’s traveling exhibition in Fortaleza. Read the artist’s statement.

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Uma pessoa com cabelo curto e encaracolado, vestindo uma camisa branca, um colete estampado e calças largas escuras, está em meio a uma instalação de arte. A instalação apresenta inúmeras hastes de metal escuras e retorcidas, semelhantes a raízes ou galhos, que cobrem o chão e se elevam ao redor da pessoa. Cortinas altas, de cor laranja claro, estão ao fundo. — Artist Rebeca Carapiá with her sculptures during the 36th Bienal de São Paulo© Levi Fanan / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

News23 Jun 2026

How to grow aerial roots: interview with Rebeca Carapiá

The walking palm trees known as paxiúbas (Socratea exorrhiza) were Rebeca Carapiá’s companions during the days she spent along the Tupana River in the Amazon basin. Using steel, carbon, and copper, the artist spent months casting a forest of sculptures centered on an exploration of language, transformation, wandering, the body, life, and death. Her works are now part of the traveling exhibition of the 36th Bienal in Santos. Read the artist’s full statement below.

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