AppointmentJuly 24, 2023
Mercosur Biennial Announces Raphael Fonseca as Chief Curator of its 14th Edition
The next edition of the Mercosul Biennial is scheduled for September 2024 in Porto Alegre. Raphael Fonseca (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1988), who has been curator of modern and contemporary art at the Denver Art Museum since 2021, a Ph.D. in Art Criticism and History from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, will lead the Biennial's artistic team, which has as assistant curators Tiago Sant'Ana (Bahia, Brazil, 1990) and Yina Jimenez Suriel (La Vega, Dominican Republic, 1994), constituting the youngest curatorial team in the Biennial's history.
Held in a post-pandemic historical moment, the 14th Mercosur Biennial has the challenge of approaching a more comprehensive local and external public, reinforcing its international character and, above all, its ties with Latin America. One of the pillars of the next Biennial, reports Fonseca, will be the elaboration of a circuit of exhibitions in several institutional spaces in Porto Alegre and adjacent areas, thus designing visit maps that will allow the public not only to appreciate works in cultural spaces but also to understand the dynamics, movements, and discourses of the city.
Another significant novelty for the 2024 edition of the Biennial is the creation of a Public Programs curatorship, to be designed by curators Anna Mattos and Marina Feldens. Also, a key field for the Mercosur Biennial, the educational sector will be curated by Brazilian artist Andréa Hygino, recognized for a body of work with pieces that usually discuss the relationship between education and artistic processes, as well as by Michele Ziegt, who has experience in the Mercosur Biennial since 2011 and researches the relationship between Language, Culture, and Education. Assistant curator Fernanda Medeiros also completes the artistic team of the Biennial with the collaboration of Estúdio Margem - responsible for all the design and visual identity of the edition. The office of architect Juliana Godoy will be challenged to prepare the spatialization, architecture, and expography of the various exhibitions that will make up the show.
Held in a post-pandemic historical moment, the 14th Mercosur Biennial has the challenge of approaching a more comprehensive local and external public, reinforcing its international character and, above all, its ties with Latin America. One of the pillars of the next Biennial, reports Fonseca, will be the elaboration of a circuit of exhibitions in several institutional spaces in Porto Alegre and adjacent areas, thus designing visit maps that will allow the public not only to appreciate works in cultural spaces but also to understand the dynamics, movements, and discourses of the city.
Another significant novelty for the 2024 edition of the Biennial is the creation of a Public Programs curatorship, to be designed by curators Anna Mattos and Marina Feldens. Also, a key field for the Mercosur Biennial, the educational sector will be curated by Brazilian artist Andréa Hygino, recognized for a body of work with pieces that usually discuss the relationship between education and artistic processes, as well as by Michele Ziegt, who has experience in the Mercosur Biennial since 2011 and researches the relationship between Language, Culture, and Education. Assistant curator Fernanda Medeiros also completes the artistic team of the Biennial with the collaboration of Estúdio Margem - responsible for all the design and visual identity of the edition. The office of architect Juliana Godoy will be challenged to prepare the spatialization, architecture, and expography of the various exhibitions that will make up the show.
