Walter Zanini, curator of the 1981 and 1983 São Paulo Biennials, defends the critical role that curators play in mega-exhibitions like the São Paulo Biennial. He asserts that that role exceeds formulating the concepts that serve as the structure of the show and selecting works that demonstrate those concepts. Chief curators must also be able to organize the material studied with the support of the curators of the different areas of the event and other players. Zanini explains that when he agreed to organize the sixteenth biennial held in 1981, he proposed to the organization’s technical committee that his function as curator would entail revamping the outdated organizational structure of the event that was based on national representations, the structure used at the Venice Biennale. Zanini also rejects the biweekly model of documenta in Kassel, Germany, which he claims privileges certain sectors of artistic production and consumption. Zanini advocates an organization based on affinity of artistic languages, an innovation that neither Europeans nor North Americans have dared to undertake. He also argues that no decision should be placed in the hands of the representatives of the international delegations; invitations should instead be addressed to individual artists. In Zanini’s view, only a critical attitude will allow the biennial to restore its prestige. His concern, and his vision, goes beyond the upcoming twentieth biennial to be held in 1989.

Art critic, historian, and curator Walter Zanini (1925–2013) was the first director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea (a part of the USP). From that post, which he held from 1963 to 1978, he encouraged the production of emerging artists and supported marginalized forms of artistic expression, from technological and conceptual approaches to multimedia works that made use of visual poetics. Zanini was also one of the curators of the first Bienal de São Paulo (1951) and a professor at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo (ECA-USP).

In this text, Zanini defends the task of curating as a critical activity. He argues that the São Paulo Biennial must devise a long-term policy and replace an organization based on national representations with one based on affinity of artistic language and a “historical nucleus” crucial to the formation of an art audience in Brazil. These were the recurring issues in the debate on the international São Paulo Biennial which was facing serious difficulties at the time. The “tripartite” curatorship of the twentieth biennial (1989) entrusted to Stella Teixeira de Barros, Carlos Von Schmidt, and João Cândido Galvão, as well as the continued use of national representations, incited great controversy.

The XVIII and XIX São Paulo Biennials, held in 1985 and 1987 respectively, had witnessed major changes pertinent to this document. Under the curatorship of Sheila Leirner, the issues of the universal and curatorial participation became central to the biennial [see doc. no. 1111107 and doc. 1110910]. The interview by Agnaldo Farias with one of curators of the twentieth biennial is particularly relevant to the issues discussed in this document: “João Cândido Galvão: ‘fiz uma Bienal com transgressors’” [doc. no. 1111317].