The 36th S\u00e3o Paulo Biennial closed in January 2026 and left one of the most celebrated legacies in the event’s recent history. In fact, the show carried the title “Not All Wanderers Walk Roads \u2013 On Humanity as Practice.” Thus, the curatorial concept drew on a verse by Brazilian writer Concei\u00e7\u00e3o Evaristo. The proposal treats humanity not as a fixed state, but as a verb in constant construction.<\/p>\n
Cameroonian curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung led the general curatorship of the show. He structured the exhibition around the idea of “listening as practice” and the metaphor of the estuary. The estuary represents a meeting point between different currents of water, cultures, and histories. As a result, the team organized the show into six thematic chapters, addressing interconnection, resistance, spatial rhythms, care, transformation, and beauty as a form of political resistance.<\/p>\n
The exhibition occupied the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, in Ibirapuera Park, in S\u00e3o Paulo. The 36th edition ran from September 6, 2025, to January 11, 2026. In turn, that was a month longer than usual, and admission was free to the public. Also, more than 130 artists from different countries took part in the show. Berlin-based studio Yukiko created the visual identity, which drew on polyphonic sound waves. In addition, Gisele de Paula and Tiago Guimar\u00e3es designed the exhibition architecture, evoking winding banks and the fluidity of an estuary.<\/p>\n
Part of the program, named “Invocations,” extended beyond S\u00e3o Paulo. Moreover, the initiative included activities in cities such as Marrakech, Guadeloupe, Zanzibar, and Tokyo. Next, the exhibition’s national tour passed through Santos, on the S\u00e3o Paulo coast, between April and June 2026. The stop at Sesc Santos brought together nine artists around the themes of memory, territory, displacement, and resistance. Finally, that stop marked the third time the city hosted a Biennial tour, after the 2011 and 2014 editions.<\/p>\n
The organizing foundation, the Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Bienal<\/a>, began in 1951 and became one of the oldest in the world after Venice’s. Thus, the 36th edition reinforced the institution’s role as one of the leading international forums for debate on contemporary art and urgent human questions. Check out more coverage of Brazilian exhibitions and art movements in OnTheNet’s Culture<\/a> category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 36th S\u00e3o Paulo Biennial closed in January 2026 and left one of the most celebrated legacies in the event’s recent history. In fact, the show carried the title “Not All Wanderers Walk Roads \u2013 On Humanity as Practice.” Thus, the curatorial concept drew on a verse by Brazilian writer Concei\u00e7\u00e3o Evaristo. The proposal treats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n