The conception of the First International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America (BIENALSUR) was framed by the question: is it possible to promote honest dialog under equal terms between some of the most prominent artists in the world and their South American counterparts? This biannual event, which is actually not held every other year but throughout 2016 and 2017, hosts an encounter between twelve countries from South America, from other parts of the American continent and the world. Buenos Aires will be the epicenter of this first edition of the event. The main venues in the Argentine capital will be the Centro Cultural Kirchner, the iconic Hotel de Inmigrantes building, the Museo de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (MUNTREF), and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA). Other important institutions associated with the event include the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), the Fundación Proa, and the Palais de Gale, among others. In addition, BIENALSUR has partnered with the following South American cities: Tucumán, Córdoba, San Juan, Montevideo, Asunción, Bogota, Lima, São Paulo, Santiago, Valparaíso, Río de Janeiro, Quito, Cali, and Caracas. Given its international nature, the biennial welcomes the participation of contemporary centers from other latitudes, such as those located in cities like Berlin, Cotonou, Sidney, Madrid, Paris, and Geneva, among those already confirmed. Highlights among the events taking place in the First International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America-BIENALSUR include the roundtable sessions that began in 2016 and by March of 2017 have become 12. These roundtables include the participation of artists, curators, collectors, critics, journalists, and the public. Some of its participants have included: Cildo Meireles, Óscar Muñoz, Anna Bella Geiger, Tatiana Trouvé, Ana Gallardo, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, Ernesto Ballesteros, Christian Boltanski, Reza, Guillermo Kuitca, Voluspa Jarpa, and Graciela Sacco, among others. One of the characteristics of this event consists of coordinating the concurrent participation of the different cities, including some of the most important urban centers in Latin America, such as Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Lima, Montevideo, Bogota, and Santiago. Another distinctive characteristic is that its organization is based at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero—Aníbal Jozami, the university's president, is also the director of the BIENALSUR—an institution that incorporates the participation of museums, universities, cultural and artistic research centers through the construction of a network of associations. In addition to the cities already mentioned, the program of activities is also designed to flood other peripheral cities and territories and invade public spaces. But it is not meant to be a "graft" to be imposed on those communities. On the contrary, it seeks to encourage the creation of works born from the interaction between the participating artists and the societies, taking into account the cultural and regional diversity. For the 2017 period, during the months of September and December, the biennial will simultaneously present in several South American cities artistic and curatorial projects from 78 countries. To this day, the BIENALSUR has confirmed the preselection of 377 projects from among the 2,543 submitted. BIENALSUR is run by: •Aníbal Jozami, Director of BIENALSUR. Beyond his vast experience in the management of international relations, Jozami is currently President of the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero and founder and director of the Museo de Arte y Centro de Arte Contemporaneous of the university, the MUNTREF. Diana B. Wechsler is head researcher at Cocin...