Comigo ninguém pode
May 9–November 22, 2026
Fundação Bienal de São Paulo announces Diane Lima as curator for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 61st International Venice Biennale, which will take place from May 9 to November 22, 2026. Artists Rosana Paulino and Adriana Varejão, selected by the curator, are part of the curatorial project Comigo ninguém pode—the Portuguese name of the plant Dieffenbachia that also resonates as a popular saying, which can be understood as “nobody can handle me” or “nobody can beat me.” The title draws on these ambiguities as a metaphor for protection, toxicity, and resilience. The proposal highlights the dialogues that run through the careers of both artists, in which reflections on colonial wounds and the rewriting of history give way to constant processes of metamorphosis, articulating new possibilities for imagination and poetic liberation.
“Being chosen to curate the Brazilian Pavilion in Venice is an honor and a great responsibility,” says Diane Lima. “Together, Paulino and Varejão historically represent the most revolutionary aspects of the presence of women in the field of national art. Their poetics, in harmony and friction, echo the struggles of social movements and democracy, without ever losing the sensitive capacity to amaze and surprise us with high-level technical quality. Along with the ideas of protection and toxicity, Comigo ninguém pode, as a popular saying, also refers to the process of transferring knowledge about nature to the realm of life, thus reflecting a collective manifestation that happens naturally when ‘me’ becomes ‘us,’ becomes many, and an entire nation, which uses its wisdom as a form of defense and sovereignty,” she says.
“Rosana Paulino’s work and mine intersect in the power of colonial wounds, a subject that structures the DNA of our works and runs through our research in a visceral way,” says Adriana Varejão. “I hope to develop a unique dialogue with Rosana that also connects with the architecture of the Pavilion, expanding the possibilities of our artistic paths,” she adds. For Rosana Paulino, “being in the Brazilian Pavilion in Venice, alongside Adriana Varejão, is an opportunity to investigate colonial wounds from different female perspectives that come together in an unprecedented dialogue. This encounter proposes a revision of art history by questioning the canon and recovering silenced memories, paving the way for new possibilities for the future.”
Since 2023, the selection process for the curatorial and artistic proposals for the Brazilian Pavilion has adopted an evaluation system composed of a committee of representatives from the three organizing bodies—the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo—which analyzes proposals from invited curators, making for a more open and participatory process.
“The curatorship of Diane Lima, with the presence of Rosana Paulino and Adriana Varejão, reaffirms the power and complexity of Brazil’s output on the international stage,” says Andrea Pinheiro, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo. “This announcement coincides with the investment in the recovery of our Pavilion and renews the institutional commitment to present a project in Venice that is worthy of the global debate to which Brazil has a contribution to make,” she concludes.
The announcement is in line with the official theme of the 61st International Venice Biennale, entitled In Minor Keys. The 2026 edition comes in the wake of the unexpected loss of appointed curator Koyo Kouoh, and will be led by the collective formed by Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, and Rory Tsapayi, professionals selected by Kouoh to accompany her on this curatorial journey and who now continue her legacy.
Recovery of the Brazilian Pavilion
The announcement of the project headed by Lima—who integrated the curatorial collective for the 35th Bienal de São Paulo, alongside Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes, and Manuel Borja-Villel—is also part of a new phase for the Brazilian Pavilion in Venice. In 2024, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo began a project to recover the building, owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in coordination with the Ministry of Culture. The initiative, which will be completed in 2026, includes stages of architectural recovery, infrastructure upgrades, accessibility, and technical adaptations for large-scale exhibitions, ensuring better conditions for the conservation of works and reception of the public.
About Diane Lima
Diane Lima (Mundo Novo-BA, Brasil, 1986) is a Brazilian curator, scholar, and a key Black feminist voice in Latin American art. Most recently, she was part of the curatorial collective that has organized choreographies of the impossible, the 35th São Paulo Bienal (2023), and curated the exhibitions Paulo Nazareth: Luzia at Museo Tamayo (Mexico City, 2024), The River is a Serpent, the 3rd Frestas Triennial of Arts (2020/2021). She also organized the two-year program Absent Dialogues at Itaú Cultural (São Paulo, 2016–2017), which played a historic role in shaping the Brazilian anticolonial turning point in contemporary art. Amongst the most recent acknowledgements of her work, in 2025, Lima was appointed as part of the Scientific Advisory Board of documenta and the MuseumFridericianum gGmbH in Germany, where she currently serves as Deputy Chair. She is the recipient of a 2021 Ford Foundation Global Fellowship, a program that celebrates the next generation of social justice leaders worldwide. Lima edited the critically-acclaimed anthology Negros na Piscina: Arte Contemporânea, Curadoria e Educação (Blacks in the Pool: Contemporary Art, Curatorship and Education) (2024), which chronicles the last ten years of the debate around raciality and art in Brazil.
About Adriana Varejão
Since the 1980s, Adriana Varejão (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964) has been developing a body of work marked by critical reflections on colonialism and the plural formation of Brazilian culture. She has held panoramic exhibitions at institutions such as the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian in Lisbon; the Pinacoteca de São Paulo; the Haus der Kunst in Munich; the Museo Tamayo in Mexico; the ICA in Boston; the Hara Museum in Tokyo; and the Fondation Cartier in Paris. She has also participated in the biennials of São Paulo, Sydney, Havana, Liverpool, and Istanbul. Throughout her career, she has been awarded important honors such as the Order of Cultural Merit from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. Her works are part of collections at museums such as the Tate Modern (London, England), the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim (New York, USA), the Dallas Museum of Art (USA), the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Fundação Serralves (Porto, Portugal), the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain), and MASP (São Paulo, Brazil). At the Instituto Inhotim in Minas Gerais, there is a permanent pavilion dedicated to her work.
About Rosana Paulino
Rosana Paulino (São Paulo, Brazil, 1967) lives and works in São Paulo. She holds a PhD in visual arts and a BA in printmaking from the Escola de Comunicações e Artes at USP, and is also a printmaking specialist from the London Print Studio. She has received major awards such as the Konex Mercosur: Visual Arts (Argentina, 2022) and the MUNCH Award (Norway, 2024). Her work is part of the collections of major institutions, including MAM SP, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, MASP, and Museu Afro Brasil Emanoel Araujo (all in São Paulo, Brazil), Malba (Buenos Aires, Argentina), MoMA, New York (USA), University of New Mexico Art Museum (Albuquerque, USA), Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, USA), Tate Modern (London, UK), and Centre Pompidou (Paris, France).
About the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
Founded in 1962, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is a private, nonprofit institution with no party political or religious ties, whose actions aim to democratize access to culture and foster interest in artistic creation. Every two years, the Fundação holds the Bienal de São Paulo, created in 1951, the largest exhibition of the Southern Hemisphere, and its travelling exhibitions in several cities in Brazil and abroad. The institution is also the custodian of two items of Latin American artistic and cultural heritage: a historical archive of modern and contemporary art that is a standard reference in Latin America (the Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo), and the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, the head office of the Fundação, designed by Oscar Niemeyer and listed as historical heritage. The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is also responsible for conceiving and producing Brazil’s representations at the Venice Biennales of art and architecture, a prerogative bestowed upon it decades ago by the Federal Government in recognition of the excellence of its contributions to Brazilian culture.
The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo would like to thank its strategic partner Itaú and its master sponsors Bloomberg, Bradesco, Petrobras, Vale, Citi, and Vivo.
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