The Bienal de São Paulo as a Case Study

− Abstract

This special issue of OBOE presents a set of case studies on the Bienal de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil), the second biennial exhibition inaugurated in 1951 following the model of the Venice Biennial. It gathers nine original peer-review articles by a team of international scholars that provide new pathways for understanding the complexities of this Southern biennial and for interrogating its position within the larger history of perennial exhibitions. From in-depth analyses of the Biennial’s award-winning artists and of its acquisition awards that today constitute the archive of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC USP), to examinations of specific national representations and important editions, the research presented here is not only relevant to the field of art history with its current focus on exhibition histories and the expansion of the canon beyond US-Europe, but also to scholarship and research in Latin American art and exhibition histories more generally.