Abstract
This paper will address specifically the 24th edition of the São Paulo Biennial (1998), which took up Oswald de Andrade’s concept of anthropophagy as a guiding axis, but it will also bring to light the first edition of the Mercosul Biennial, which was held in 1997 in the city of Porto Alegre, situated in the south of Brazil, with the intention of establishing itself as a space for promotion of Latin American art. Both biennials are private entities, supported by autonomous foundations, but which require public funds to carry out their shows. It is noteworthy that those two shows were held a few years after the third edition of the Havana Biennial, which is widely recognized as a landmark in the history of the biennials based on South–South dialogue. I will point out the connections between the proposals of these exhibitions as well as relate them to the Brazilian economic situation at the time and the dilemma of globalization.
Highlights
This paper will address the 24th edition of the São Paulo Biennial (1998), which took up Oswald de Andrade’s concept of anthropophagy as a guiding axis, but it will bring to light the first edition of the Mercosul Biennial, which was held in 1997 in the city of Porto
In the catalogue of the first edition of the Mercosul Biennial, which was presented as “the biggest art exhibition of Latin America”, its curator, the Brazilian art critic Frederico Morais writes: Since the times of European colonization, the main evidence of our marginalization is the absence of Latin America in the history of universal art
Adopting a critical stance, which professes regionalism, Morais states that art history should be rewritten on other perspectives and notes that “constructing a history of Latin American art means deconstructing the metropolitan history of art”
Summary
In the catalogue of the first edition of the Mercosul Biennial, which was presented as “the biggest art exhibition of Latin America”, its curator, the Brazilian art critic Frederico Morais writes: Since the times of European colonization, the main evidence of our marginalization is the absence of Latin America in the history of universal art. In reference to Latin America, they point out that a series of biennials were held in different countries of the region between the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s in an attempt to “redirect the axis of cultural and economic influence away from the North (whether that be the United States or Iberia) so as to concentrate on exchange with neighbours in the Caribbean and other parts of South and Central America” His using of the concept as a guiding axis for the show made the association unavoidable
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