Not All Travellers Walk Roads—Of Humanity as Practice

With the exhibition Not All Travellers Walk Roads—Of Humanity as Practice, the 36th Bienal de São Paulo comes to Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin. Taking place in Germany for the very first time, the Berlin edition of one of the oldest and most influential biennials unfolds as a distinct constellation of artistic positions, including newly conceived, readapted, and site-specific works.

Departing from Conceição Evaristo’s poem “Da calma e do silêncio” [Of calm and silence], in which she writes: ‘Not all travellers/ walk roads/ there are submerged worlds/ that only the silence/ of poetry penetrates’, the exhibition understands listening as one of the core tenets of the practice of humanity. Through such close attunement, it becomes possible to enter into relation—with other beings, with lands and waters, with the multigenerational lineages we carry within us—and foster spaces of coexistence and care.

The exhibition rethinks humanity as a verb—a living practice that can renegotiate and dismantle prevailing asymmetries. Across installations, performances, sound works, storytelling, and spatial interventions, the participating artists critically engage the political and colonial inheritances embedded within modernity. In doing so, they articulate forms of resistance to dehumanization, extractivism, and monocultural thinking from São Paulo to Berlin and elsewhere. At the same time, the works cultivate gestures of care, nurturing, and interdependence that extend beyond the human, engaging with animal and plant life, memory, and spirit. Beauty emerges here as a political force, rooted in the ordinary, the fractured, and the unfinished.

Not All Travellers Walk Roads—Of Humanity as Practice is an invitation to trace those paths in pursuit of that practice. What routes do we take in that undertaking? How do we afford ourselves the privilege of going off track, off the road, embracing errancy, getting lost, finding other worlds? Bringing together more than thirty international artists across a wide range of practices, this abridged Berlin edition of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo calls for joy, imagination, and dreaming not as escape, but as vital ways of conjugating humanity.

With
Amina Agueznay, Malika Agueznay, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Leo Asemota, Maria Auxiliadora, Aline Baiana, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Rebeca Carapiá, Manauara Clandestina, Christopher Cozier, Gervane de Paula, Théodore Diouf, Juliana dos Santos, Cevdet Erek, Theo Eshetu, Tanka Fonta, Forensic Architecture, Laila Hida, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Leiko Ikemura, Mao Ishikawa, Julianknxx, Lidia Lisbôa, Mohamed Melehi, Emeka Ogboh, Olu Oguibe, Alberto Pitta, Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos, Ming Smith, Sérgio Soarez, Chaïbia Talal, Wolfgang Tillmans

The 36th Bienal de São Paulo is conceived by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, alongside co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz, and Thiago de Paula Souza, co-curator at large Keyna Eleison, strategy and communications advisor Henriette Gallus, and deputy co-curators André Pitol and Leonardo Matsuhei. The Berlin edition is curated by Alya Sebti.

Opening program
Not All Travellers Walk Roads—Of Humanity as Practice opens on September 11 with a three-day program of performances, artist talks, guided tours, poetry, film, and music. The opening weekend features a performance by Julianknxx, a concert by Ray Lema Quintet, and a DJ set by Emeka Ogboh, alongside contributions by Aline Baiana, Abena P. A. Busia, Vilanismo with Akinbode Akinbiyi, and Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn.

For more information, visit: hkw.de/NotAllTravellers.

Partner
The Berlin edition of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo is presented by Petrobras and is part of Fundação Bienal de São Paulo’s traveling exhibitions program, held since 2011.

Haus der Kulturen der Welt is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. 

Contact
Maxie Fischer, Head of Press and Communications, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, presse@hkw.de