Opening September 6, the Bienal unfolds inside the Pavilion and beyond, with global public programs and augmented reality interventions.
Apparitions, Juliana dos Santos, Bienal de São Paulo and WAVA.
The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo opens the 36th Bienal de São Paulo Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice on September 6 2025, at the Bienal Pavilion in Ibirapuera Park. Admission is free, and the exhibition runs until January 11 2026.
With 120 participants at the Pavilion and additional projects at Casa do Povo, this edition continues the Bienal’s legacy as the largest exhibition of the Southern Hemisphere while pushing its curatorial vision beyond the exhibition halls. Conceived by chief curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung together with co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz and Thiago de Paula Souza, co-curator at large Keyna Eleison, and consultant Henriette Gallus, the Bienal draws inspiration from Conceição Evaristo’s poem Da calma e do silêncio. The curatorial framework emphasises listening, displacement and negotiation as essential practices of humanity.
Conjugations: Global voices in São Paulo
Launched alongside the exhibition, the Bienal’s public program, Conjugations, gathers debates, performances, and activations developed in collaboration with cultural institutions from around the world. Each invited organisation curates a gathering in São Paulo, bringing together thinkers, artists and audiences to explore how humanity is expressed through everyday practices.
The participating institutions reflect an expansive geography, among them 32º East (Kampala), Africa Design School (Cotonou), blaxTARLINES (Kumasi), Center for Art, Research and Alliances (New York), Fondation H (Antananarivo), Jatiwangi Art Factory (Jatiwangi), SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin), and Tanoto Art Foundation (Singapore). Local partners include FLUP (Rio de Janeiro) and Afrotonizar (Salvador), underscoring the Bienal’s attention to transnational and intra-Brazilian connections.
Apparitions: An exhibition without walls
An unprecedented project in the Bienal’s history, Apparitions extends the exhibition through augmented reality. Developed with the WAVA platform, the initiative enables fragments and echoes of artworks to manifest in Ibirapuera Park and at sites chosen by artists worldwide. These include the banks of the Congo River, the border between Mexico and the United States, and urban spaces across Africa and Asia. Accessible only through a dedicated app and visible at specific locations, the works create a situated experience that merges the physical and digital while decentralising the Bienal’s reach.
A Bienal in flux
“One of the many ways of conjugating humanity is by creating encounters. Humanity is not an abstract noun, but a verb and practice in crossings, in words, in presences,” says general curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. “Both Conjugations and Apparitions are epitomes of such encounters through which humanities can be formulated. Like the migratory birds that inspire our curatorial strategy, these actions cross territories, carrying and collecting meanings.”
By activating local and international networks, the Bienal becomes a project in flux, constantly moving across geographies. Andrea Pinheiro, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, adds: “Programs such as Conjugations and Apparitions not only expand this edition, but further reinforce the Bienal’s vocation as a space of connection, crossing borders and building bridges between different audiences and cultures.”
About the Bienal
Founded in 1962, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is a nonprofit institution dedicated to democratising access to art and culture. Beyond organising the Bienal every two years, it produces travelling exhibitions across Brazil and abroad, curates the Brazilian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and maintains the Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo, a key archive of Latin American modern and contemporary art.
With this edition, the Bienal continues its mission of staging encounters between artists, audiences and institutions, expanding what it means to practice humanity through art.
The 36th Bienal de São Paulo will be on view from September 6 2025, until January 11 2026. For more information, please visit the 36th Bienal de São Paulo.
