The 13th edition of the Architecture Biennale runs until 17th July in different parts of the city, with exhibitions at Sesc Avenida Paulista and Centro Cultural São Paulo (the latter opening this Saturday, 04/06).

Under the theme "Crossings", the event, held by the IAB-São Paulo (since 1973), with the master sponsorship of Belgo Bekaert Arames, institutional partnership of Sesc São Paulo and Centro Cultural São Paulo, starts from a reality of intense transformations generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which required intense efforts of organization of the urban, social and professional dynamics for survival.

From November 2020 to January 2021 a competition was opened to select a co-curatorial proposal for the 13th edition that suggested as guiding axes: democracy, bodies, memory, information and ecology.

Among the 11 proposals evaluated, "Travessias", which gives its name to the edition, was unanimously chosen. The winning team is made up of nine Brazilian members from different fields: Carolina Piai Vieira, Larissa Francez Zarpelon, Louise Lenate Ferreira da Silva, Luciene Gomes, Pedro Cardoso Smith, Pedro Vinícius Alves, Raíssa Albano de Oliveira, Thiago Sousa Silva, Viviane de Andrade Sá. The group, alongside the resident curator, Sabrina Fontenele, built the 13th International Biennale of Architecture - Travessias.

The "Travessias" proposal understands that the pandemic reinforces socio-spatial inequalities that were already established, not only in the country, but also in the world, understanding that these structures suffer fragmentations, both physical and symbolic, rooted in violent processes of colonization and historical erasures. As a consequence, they provoke numerous manifestations of oppression - such as racism, sexism, capacitism and coloniality - in Brazil and in various territories around the world.

The curatorial team started from the concept of crossings by the historian Maria Beatriz Nascimento (1942, Aracaju, SE - 1995, Rio de Janeiro, RJ) who investigates what from the colonial past and the diasporas remains and what changes in these displacements of populations around the world.

According to the curatorial team, crossings are usually related to connection: the bridge that enables the transposition between two banks of a river; the ladder connects two levels; the ramp overcomes the unevenness in an accessible way; the paths connect territories. "Travessias" can also be understood as journeys: the forced migrations of African people kidnapped from their countries of origin, the escapes to the quilombos or the displacements from the countryside to the city. Crossing is, therefore, a movement that implies bodies and territories and, if carried out collectively, the sharing of experiences, memories and identity. The territories are marked by social, temporal and geographical inequalities and, in the Brazilian case, were shaped by disputes that involve the desire for permanence and movement," adds the curator.

The 13th International Biennale of Architecture - Travessias brings together works by 10 curators invited - artistic installations - and 23 selected by an open call. The exhibition of these projects will be held at Sesc Avenida Paulista and Centro Cultural SP. The 13th edition is composed by three axes: the exhibition in both addresses; by an extensive program - conferences, thematic tables and performances - that takes place in the cultural equipments and public spaces of the Paulista Avenue axis: Sesc, Itaú Cultural and Instituto Moreira Salles; and by educational activities - guided visits, workshops and mediation.

Click here to and check out the entire programme of the 13th International Biennale of Architecture of São Paulo

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