Argentina remained. Until now.
Por primera vez desde 1951, Argentina no tiene presencia en la Bienal de São Paulo, el evento de arte más importante de América Latina. La ruptura de 74 años de participación ininterrumpida no responde a un conflicto ni a una retirada deliberada, sino a una metodología curatorial que, inspirada en las rutas migratorias de las aves, eligió trascender las fronteras nacionales como criterio de selección. En el momento en que la bienal amplía su mirada hacia África y las diásporas globales, una ausencia silenciosa plantea preguntas sobre quién queda fuera cuando el arte busca ir más allá de los mapas.
- Una tradición de siete décadas se interrumpe sin anuncio oficial: Argentina, presente desde la edición inaugural de 1951, no figura entre los más de 120 artistas de la 36ª Bienal de São Paulo.
- El equipo curatorial, liderado por el camerunés Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, utilizó los patrones de migración de aves como metodología, priorizando el movimiento transcontinental y la experiencia vivida por encima del origen nacional.
- La bienal despliega una apuesta curatorial ambiciosa: foco en África y sus diásporas, luz natural, estructuras mínimas en el pabellón de Niemeyer, y obras de figuras como Wolfgang Tillmans, Firelei Báez y el colectivo Forensic Architecture.
- La paradoja es visible: mientras el evento expande su mapa hacia el Sur Global, deja fuera a un país cuya escena artística —de Berni a Minujín, de Ferrari a Erlich— ha sido fundacional para la cultura visual latinoamericana.
- La ausencia argentina abre interrogantes sobre la visibilidad del arte contemporáneo del país en el circuito regional y sobre qué se pierde cuando las metodologías universalistas reemplazan la representación geográfica.
La 36ª Bienal de São Paulo abrió sus puertas en el Parque Ibirapuera con más de 120 artistas de cinco continentes, su tema anclado en un poema de Conceição Evaristo y orientado hacia preguntas urgentes sobre humanidad, naturaleza y escucha. Pero la apertura trajo consigo una ausencia histórica: por primera vez desde 1951, Argentina no envió representación alguna, rompiendo 74 años de presencia ininterrumpida que comenzó con obras de Antonio Berni, Raquel Forner, Juan del Prete y Raúl Soldi.
Durante siete décadas, los artistas argentinos mantuvieron su lugar en el segundo evento de arte más grande del mundo después de Venecia. Pabellones oficiales, invitaciones curatoriales, colectivos: la continuidad resistió todos los cambios de formato. Nombres como Marta Minujín, Leandro Erlich, León Ferrari y Tomás Saraceno marcaron ediciones sucesivas. La última presencia registrada fue en 2023, con obra de Elda Cerrato.
La ruptura no fue un gesto político sino metodológico. El equipo curatorial, encabezado por el camerunés Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, se inspiró en las rutas migratorias de las aves para seleccionar participantes: un criterio que privilegia el movimiento transcontinental y la experiencia vivida por encima del origen nacional. La lógica es poética y deliberada, pero sus consecuencias son concretas.
La muestra ocupa el Pabellón Ciccillo Matarazzo con entrada libre, diseño austero y luz natural que respeta las estructuras originales de Oscar Niemeyer. Entre los artistas incluidos figuran el fotógrafo Wolfgang Tillmans, la dominicana Firelei Báez y el colectivo Forensic Architecture. El foco en África y sus diásporas refuerza el alcance global del evento, pero genera una paradoja: al extender el mapa hacia el Sur Global, la bienal deja fuera a un país vecino cuya escena artística ha sido fundacional para la cultura visual latinoamericana. La pregunta que queda flotando es si la ausencia de Argentina es una consecuencia inevitable de esa expansión o una señal de algo más profundo sobre su lugar en el circuito regional.
The 36th São Paulo Biennial opened its doors on Saturday in the Ibirapuera Park pavilion with more than 120 artists from five continents, its theme drawn from a poem by Conceição Evaristo and centered on urgent questions about humanity, nature, and listening. For the first time in the event's history—a break spanning 74 years—Argentina sent no official representation. The absence marks a rupture in an uninterrupted presence that began in 1951, when works by Antonio Berni, Raquel Forner, Juan del Prete, and Raúl Soldi traveled to the inaugural edition as part of a substantial delegation.
For seven decades, Argentine artists maintained their place at what remains Latin America's most significant art event and the world's second-largest biennial after Venice. Official state-sponsored pavilions gave way over time to curator-selected invitations, but the continuity held. Names like Alfredo Hlito, Graciela Sacco, Nicola Costantino, Jorge Macchi, Leandro Erlich, Marta Minujín, and Tomás Saraceno appeared across successive editions. Collectives including Etcétera, Eloísa Cartonera, and the Taller Popular de Serigrafía also maintained that presence. As recently as 2023, Elda Cerrato's work was included; in 2021, León Ferrari's pieces hung in the galleries. The pattern seemed immutable.
The curatorial team, led by Cameroonian curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung alongside Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz, Thiago de Paula Souza, Keyna Eleison, and Henriette Gallus, employed an unconventional methodology to shape this edition. They drew inspiration from bird migration patterns—the precise transcontinental and transclimate trajectories of avian movement—as a guiding principle for selecting participants. The curators explained that just as birds carry memories, experiences, and languages across borders, migrating not merely from necessity but as continuous transformation, their selection process aimed to move beyond nation-state classifications and fixed frontiers. The approach prioritized transcontinental movement and lived experience over geographic origin.
The exhibition itself occupies the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion with free admission, its design deliberately minimal. The curatorial team chose to build as little as possible within the space, privileging natural light and the original structures designed by Oscar Niemeyer. The works span multiple languages—painting, installation, video, performance—and include figures like German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, Dominican artist Firelei Báez working with Caribbean history and imagination, and the Forensic Architecture collective, which investigates human rights violations through artistic and technological means. The opening installation comes from Precious Okoyomon, a queer artist of Nigerian origin, whose immersive forest-like structures have appeared at major international venues including Madrid's ARCO fair.
One of the biennial's most pronounced characteristics is its deliberate focus on Africa and the multiple diasporas connecting the continent to Brazil and the broader world. This curatorial choice reinforces the event's global reach and its engagement with contemporary debates around migration, identity, and cultural practice. Yet this very expansion creates a paradox: as the biennial extends its map toward Africa and the Global South, it leaves behind a neighboring country whose contemporary art scene has been foundational to Latin American visual culture. The São Paulo Biennial was born from the Venice model—the grand national pavilions that have defined international art exhibitions since 1895—and sought from its inception to position Brazil as a neuralgic center for modern and contemporary art in the region. Over decades, it transformed its formats, moving from national pavilions to conceptual curations, weathering controversies along the way. But through all those shifts, Argentina remained. Until now.
Citas Notables
The precise transcontinental and transclimate trajectories of birds serve as metaphor for the curation itself—we transport memories, experiences, and languages across borders, migrating not only from necessity but as continuous transformation, helping us avoid classifications based on nation-states and frontiers.— Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and the curatorial team
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does a single country's absence from a biennial matter this much? Isn't the point to show the best work, regardless of origin?
It would be, except Argentina wasn't absent because the work wasn't good enough. It was absent because the curators chose a methodology that explicitly moved away from nation-state thinking. That's a real philosophical shift, not a judgment on the art.
So the curators are saying borders don't matter anymore?
Not quite. They're saying that in a world where people and ideas move constantly across borders, organizing by nationality feels like organizing by something that no longer holds the same weight. They used bird migration as their metaphor—birds don't ask for passports.
But birds also return to the same places every year. There's a pattern, a home.
That's the tension, isn't it? Argentina had a 74-year pattern. That's not nothing. Breaking it sends a signal, whether intentional or not.
What signal?
That the old way of thinking about regional art—where Argentina, as a major player, had a guaranteed seat—is being replaced by something more fluid, more global, more focused on movement and diaspora. Whether that's progress or loss depends on what you think art institutions should do.