The 36th São Paulo Bienal Reimagines Humanity as Practice

After Venice, the Bienal de São Paulo is one of the world’s oldest and most influential biennials. Since its launch in 1951, it has served as a key engine for the transformation, consolidation and internationalization of the art scene in Brazil and across South America. Opening this year on September 6 and running through January 11, 2026, the 36th edition promises to be one for the books. Titled “Nem todo andante anda estradas / Da humanidade como prática” (“Not All Travellers Walk Roads / Of Humanity as Practice”), the event will reframe humanity as an ever-evolving living practice in a world that requires constantly reimagining relationships, confronting asymmetries and conflicts and exploring alternative forms of coexistence between beings.

“The theme is broad—it’s about questioning the very notion of humanity,” curator Paula Souza” class=”company-link”>Thiago de Paula Souza told Observer during a busy São Paulo Art Week. “How does one become human? How does one exercise and practice humanity? And if humanity were a verb, how would we conjugate it?”

SEE ALSO: SP–Arte Founder Fernanda Feitosa Reflects On Brazil’s Lasting Cultural and Artistic Momentum

De Paula Souza is part of a diverse conceptual team led by chief curator Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, working alongside co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz and Paula Souza, with Keyna Eleison as co-curator-at-large and Henriette Gallus advising on strategy and communication. This polyphonic curatorial model offers a wide plurality of perspectives. “We followed research paths that mirrored the migratory routes of birds—how they navigate the globe with the seasons,” de Paula Souza said. This method underpins a globally cohesive but deeply multicultural vision while actively avoiding what he calls the “commodification of identities,” a trend that has saturated the contemporary art world in recent years. Artists were selected not for tokenist markers of identity but for the conceptual and poetic force of their work: “We’re interested in how different subjectivities expand our understanding of what it means to be human—how communities imagine and embody human presence on this planet.”

Conceiving a biennial with this broad a scope comes with challenges. “Even if you can come up with a very strong and complex curatorial concept, it is still important that it be able to speak to a broader audience,” said de Paula Souza, noting how deeply embedded the biennial is in the civic fabric of Brazil. The Bienal de São Paulo is very popular—Brazilian people from widely different backgrounds participate in it and it’s one of the country’s most important cultural events. Historically held in the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, it is free of charge and extends into the park, which expands its public impact and resonance. “Sometimes people are just walking around the park, having picnics, and they might go in not being fully aware of what a biennial is and have these serendipitous encounters with art. That’s why the Bienal must be able to speak to all.”

The 36th Bienal de São Paulo draws its title from an enigmatic poem by Afro-Brazilian poet Conceição Evaristo, calma e do silêncio (Of calm and silence), where the long-overlooked and recently rediscovered author writes, “not every traveler/walks road, / there are submerged worlds, / that only silence / from poetry.” These lines form the conceptual entry point for an exhibition structured around three central axes—one reclaiming space and time, one asking the public to see themselves reflected in others and contemplate the necessary interrelational essence of existence, and one taking the estuary as a symbol and metaphor for generative encounters.

Thiago de Paula Souza told Observer that the building will be transformed into a place where a diverse set of narratives and voices will converge. “We are imagining the pavilion as an estuary, which is this encounter of different bodies of water, where saltwater and freshwater meet.” The transformation will serve as a powerful symbolic metaphor translating the history of Brazil, marked by the fusion of Indigenous peoples, Europeans and enslaved Africans. Within this framework, the exhibition will explore how cultures manage difference, navigate conflict and pursue coexistence through new modes of thought and beauty, drawing inspiration from writers like Patrick Chamoiseau and Édouard Glissant. “It took eighteen months to build this Bienal,” de Paula Souza said. “We’re not responding to every current event, but the show is meant as a portrait of our time—mirroring the ruptures, conflicts and transformations that define the human condition today.”

Many of these ideas have already been tested through a series of global “Invocations” held in 2024 and 2025 in cities across the Global South. Organized in collaboration with local cultural institutions, these events—part lecture, part performance, part ritual—took place in Morocco, Guadeloupe, Tanzania and Japan. “They’re called invocations because we’re trying to call in the energy we want to bring to the exhibition,” de Paula Souza explained. The central focus has been on sound and sonic traditions—how music, rhythm and voice connect across cultures.

Launching the series, the Moroccan encounter Souffles: On Deep Listening and Active Reception took place in Marrakesh at LE 18 and Fondation Dar Bellarj. Led by Laila Hida and Maha Elmadi, the event focused on the precarity of breath, exploring the tradition of Gnawa and Sufi cultures and questioning how listening is already a practice of coexistence.

That first “Invocation” was followed by Bigidi mè pa tonbé! (Totter, but never fall!), presented in December in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, which focused on dance as a practice of bodily adaptation and resistance. In February, the biennial landed in Zanzibar with Mawali-Taqsim: Improvisation as a Space and Technology of Humanity, which explored the perception of Taarab not only as a rhythm but as a tool of encounters and multiple exchanges on the East Coast of Africa. Finally, a few weeks ago, the Bienal de São Paulo concluded the series in Tokyo with Bukimi no Tani (不気味の谷): The Uncanny Valley – The Affectivity of the Humanoid, questioning how humans have encountered, adapted and integrated technology into their existence.

While the full list of participating artists won’t be announced until late May, these themes and moments of encounter and exchange will converge at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion. Crucially, this series—and the broader curatorial framework that has shaped the Bienal in recent years—marks a deliberate effort to construct a truly multicultural platform for critical engagement with the idea of humanity in this precarious historical moment. Moving beyond the confines of identity, geography and chronology, the latest edition of the Bienal de São Paulo will attempt to address the human condition on a genuinely universal scale.