In this article the journalist Lisette Lagnado discusses the layout of the XX Bienal Internacional de São Paulo in terms of the artwork/space ratio and arrangement vis-à-vis the interaction among artists, curators, architects, and even the public. In Lagnado’s view, these matters are of vital importance in order to ensure that every kind of audience is able to understand contemporary art, promising that at the next biennial the works of art will be compatible with the space and vice versa. The author sharply criticizes the layout (with space still arranged according to the countries represented) and the “language analogy,” as though these were the only options available. The building that houses the Bienal suggests other possibilities. Lagnado notes examples of spatial solutions (whose merits she disputes) and points out the poor illumination and flow of people, and errors in terms of the areas assigned to different works, individual works, and surrounding space. Toward the end of the article, the author focuses on the curatorial contribution to the problems she sees in the layout of this twentieth biennial, where the Brazilian representatives are all bunched up together in one place, a strategy that helps to reinforce a neocolonialist and stereotypical view of Brazilian art.  

This review of the XX Bienal Internacional de São Paulo sheds light on some of the curatorial criteria that the author, Lisette Lagnado, later applied when she took over the reins at the XXVII São Paulo biennial. National representation was abolished at the twenty-seventh edition of the event, an innovation that eliminated geopolitical considerations from decisions made about art. It also prevented any “language analogy” (which was exacerbated at the XVIII Bienal directed by Sheila Leirner). Avoiding those common issues, the flow of people was rearranged inside the building by using the original (side) entrance.  

The art critic and curator Lisette Lagnado (b. 1961) is also a teacher. She began her career in the 1980s and was soon steeped in recent contemporary art. She played an important role in the so-called Projeto Leonilson, which was created shortly after the artist’s death in 1994, originally to produce a Catalogue raisonné of his work designed to expose it to a wider audience. Among other activities, Lagnado is known for her curatorial work at the XXVII Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2006).

[As complementary reading, see another couple of articles by Lagnado in the ICAA digital archive: “La instauración, entre la instalación y la performance” (doc. no. 1111435); and “Desejo de servir = Serving desire” (doc. no. 1111262). See also her interviews with Sheila Leirner (doc. no. 1111294); Fernando Millan (doc. no. 1111293); Thomas Cohn (doc. no. 1111322); and José Leonilson (doc. no. 1110768)].