How to (…) Things That Don’t Exist
An exhibition developed out of the 31st São Paulo Biennial
2 October 2015–17 January 2016
Opening: 1 October, 10pm
Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art
Rua D. João de Castro, 210
4150–417 Porto
Portugal
Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa, Yael Bartana, Anna Boghiguian, Johanna Calle, Tony Chakar, Chto Delat, Contrafilé & Sandi Hilal & Alessandro Petti, Danica Dakić, Etcétera & León Ferrari, Nilbar Güreş, Clara Ianni & Débora Maria da Silva, Voluspa Jarpa, Edward Krasiński, Graziela Kunsch & Lilian L’Abbate Kelian, Mark Lewis, Ana Lira, Gabriel Mascaro, Virginia de Medeiros, Cildo Meireles, Éder Oliveira, Bruno Pacheco, Agnieszka Piksa, Armando Queiroz & Almires Martins & Marcelo Rodrigues, Walid Raad, Juan Carlos Romero, Wilhelm Sasnal, Qiu Zhijie
The São Paulo Biennial was initiated in 1951 and is the second oldest art biennial in the world. This will be the first time in its more than 60-year history that the São Paulo Biennial will travel outside Latin America.
The exhibition at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Artfeatures 28 artists and artist collectives from the 31st São Paulo Biennial. It is a project that draws on the experience of the Biennial in Brazil to tell a different story in Europe.
How to (learn from) things that don’t exist is aninvestigation into art’s revelatory potential. The title of the exhibition is itself in constant change with the mutating verb suggesting some of the many, different ways to experience art as a process of becoming. The artworks in the exhibition offer a perspective of how religion, history and other systems of control affect daily life and shape ways of thinking and imagining the world.
Works of Brazilian artists are strongly represented to reveal ways in which the current generation of artists has emerged from the shadow of Tropicalismo and Brazilian modernism. Artists from Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Turkey are also represented, many with works made especially for the Biennial.
The presentation at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art features the Programme in Time, a specially curated series of discussions that will unfold over three moments during the course of the exhibition. The programme was founded on extensive curatorial research in Porto and Lisbon, which included meetings with young artists, activists and researchers, as well as visits to artist-run spaces, universities and art cooperatives, and will focus on important themes that shape this project: “Education,” “Reverse Colonialism,” and “The Right to the City―Criminalization of the Poor.”
How to (…) things that don’t exist, an exhibition developed out of the 31st São Paulo Biennial, is curated by Charles Esche, Galit Eilat and Oren Sagiv, assisted by Serralves curators Ricardo Nicolau and Paula Fernandes, and organized by the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo in collaboration with the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto. The 31st Sao Paulo Biennial was additionally curated by Nuria Enguita Mayo and Pablo Lafuente with Benjamin Serrousi and Luiza Proença.
Support: Ministry of Culture of Brazil
For further information and image requests, please contact m.morais [at] serralves.pt.
About Serralves
The Serralves Museum of Contemporary is the foremost museum for contemporary art in Portugal, and one of Europe’s most renowned institutions for contemporary art and culture. Uniquely sited on the grounds of the Serralves Foundation (which also comprises a park and the Serralves Villa, a landmark art deco building), the Museum, designed by Álvaro Siza, opened in 1999. Through its exhibitions, collection, publications, performing arts, and public programmes, the Museum fosters the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and culture in Portugal and around the world.
