Highlights of 2023 visual arts program

Among its activities in the visual arts, Sesc São Paulo carries out a broad and diverse program of exhibitions throughout the year in its more than 40 units in the state of São Paulo. In 2023, lending continuity to its commitment to fostering knowledge and raising awareness concerning visual art production among its various publics, the institution is holding about 55 exhibitions, including new shows, traveling shows and partnerships with other important cultural institutions in Brazil, such as the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM), the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) and the Museu Judaico de São Paulo.

One of the highlights is Dos Brasis: arte e pensamento negro (On the Brazils: Black Thought and Art), an exhibition that will feature a cross-section of contemporary production and critical thinking about Brazilian art from an Afro-Brazilian point of view throughout the national territory. The project began in 2022 as an artist residency program coupled with a broad national mapping of the production of Afro-Brazilian artists. An outcome of this work, the show is curated jointly by Igor Simões, Lorraine Mendes, Marcelo Campos and the Sesc team, and realized in cooperation between Sesc’s National Department and other regional branches.

Another strong line developed in the program is the reflection on the body and performativity in the arts, materialized in solo shows by Orlan and by Ana Mendieta, slated for the second semester of 2023. Curated by Ana Paula Simioni and Alain Quemin, the project Tornar-se Orlan (Becoming Orlan) will investigate the work and reverberations of the French artist who, since 1964, works with “carnal art,” considering the body as a place of public debate. Curated by Daniela Labra, Hilda de Paulo and Marivi Vélez, the work of Cuban artist Ana Mendieta will be presented together with that of other Latin American women artists whose works present points of contact with her legacy, giving rise to reflections on latent themes such as ancestrality, feminism and gender violence.

Also in the second semester, the 22nd edition of the Bienal de Arte Contemporânea Sesc_Videobrasil will be held. Titled A memória é uma ilha de edição (Memory Is an Island of Edition), the biennial that commemorates the 40 years of Associação Videobrasil will study the inextricable associations of the audiovisual with the passage of time and memory. It is being curated by Solange Farkas together with Raphael Fonseca and Renné Mboya.

Partnership with other institutions and the decentralization of the circulation of shows are also relevant paths of work in the program, which seeks the constant traveling of projects throughout the state, beyond the centers. Examples of this are Bottanica Tirannica, a show by Giselle Beiguelman held by the Museu Judaico and curated by Ilana Feldman, which tensions decolonial thought in the relationships between culture and nature; the 37th Panorama da Arte Brasileira, held by the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, which discusses naturalized paradigms in relationship to colonial Brazil, curated by Claudinei Roberto da Silva, Vanessa Davidson, Cristiana Tejo and Cauê Alves; and Um Defeito de Cor (A Defect of Color), a show by the Museu de Arte do Rio which, based on works of contemporary art, revisits the book of the same name by writer Ana Maria Gonçalves, who is curating the show together with Amanda Bonan and Marcelo Campos.

Another important highlight is the release of the second edition of the project Trocas & Olhares: arte popular no Acervo Sesc de Arte (Bienal Naïfs) (Exchanges and Gazes: Popular Art in the Sesc Art Collection (Bienal Naïfs)). Focused on the training of teachers and educators in the visual arts, the publication considers the Sesc Art Collection as a basis for stimulating aesthetic experience as a phenomenon in its own right and for triggering processes of individual and social transformation. The project directly reverberates a valuable line of activity in Sesc São Paulo’s visual arts program: educational mediation at exhibitions, aimed at raising awareness and fostering knowledge not only among the general public, but also among young professionals.

Even in the context of the health crisis and the defunding of cultural projects observed in recent years, the institution has endured and reinvented itself to maintain its relevant and permanent visual arts programming, offered entirely free of charge at all its units.

About Sesc São Paulo
With 76 years of activity, Sesc—Serviço Social do Comércio—has a network of 45 operational units in the state of São Paulo and carries out actions aimed at promoting well-being and quality of life among the workers of the commerce, services and tourism sectors, and in general society. Maintained by businesspeople in the sector, Sesc is a private entity that operates in the areas of physical/sport activities, the natural environment, health, dentistry, social tourism, arts, meals and food security, inclusion, diversity and citizenship. The institution’s initiatives spring from cultural and educational perspectives aimed at all ages, with the goal of contributing to longer lasting and more meaningful experiences. The units of the state of São Paulo provide service to up to 30 million people per year. Today, approximately 50 national and international organizations in the field of arts, sports, culture, health, the natural environment, tourism, social service and human rights have representatives from Sesc São Paulo on their boards. Learn more at sescsp.org.br/sobreosesc.