The IAB-SP, organizer of the São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, following a public consultation on the open call guidelines from October 10 to 25, is launching a competition on November 4 to select the co-curatorial team for the 13th Biennial, which will take place in 2022. Proposals can be submitted through the Biennial's website until January 24, 2021. This edition features a 12-member committee, which includes IAB representatives from other Brazilian states to ensure a diverse perspective in overseeing the event, which has both national and international reach.
In light of the challenges posed by COVID-19, the 13th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial proposes RECONSTRUCTION as its central theme—an invitation to a broad debate featuring reflections and proposals that address social practices, spatial arrangements, and the possibilities of (sur)viving and transforming the reality of urban and rural areas. “It starts from the idea of rebuilding, reshaping, and renewing the relationships of social groups with their domestic spaces, citizens with public spaces, and the personal and professional dynamics that occur in both confined and collective spaces, during and after the pandemic,” highlights Sabrina Fontenele, resident curator of this edition and cultural director of IAB-SP.
To this end, the Co-Curator Competition proposes five guiding axes to expand upon the concept of RECONSTRUCTION: Democracy, Bodies, Memory, Information, and Ecology. According to Fontenele, the event will also prioritize a network of public and community facilities where integrated urban and environmental transformation projects are being developed in dialogue with local communities (Jardim Guarani, Jardim Pantanal, Parque Pinheirinho D’Água, Jardim Lapenna, and Parque Novo Mundo) in partnership with the Pacto Pelas Cidades Justas (Just Cities Pact). Additionally, cultural facilities and public spaces along Avenida Paulista will host exhibitions, debates, and activities engaging the city's population.
“This process will seek to help strengthen a collaborative network—involving universities, cultural institutions, and social movements, among others—working toward a social pact to share projects, narratives, experiences, and tools that enable the understanding, engagement, and transformation of the urban environment and culture,” adds Fernando Tulio Salva Rocha Franco, president of IAB-SP.
About the Axes:
In a country facing threats of democratic backsliding, the Democracy axis suggests exploring how to make cities more accessible, safe, welcoming, and inviting, while also recognizing them as places where contrasts and conflicts are latent, discussing issues surrounding the presence of different social classes, races, and genders. It also proposes highlighting innovative solutions for democratic planning and management based on localized, community-led experiences.
Meanwhile, Bodies focuses the discussion on the relationship between space and themes such as intersectionality, vulnerabilities, and social policies. It suggests reflecting on how to ensure collective practices in light of public health issues, discrimination, violence, and human rights violations, thereby rethinking how to guarantee access, cohabitation, and movement for people in cities. Furthermore, it highlights the urgent need for targeted programs for specific groups—such as children, youth, the elderly, and people with disabilities—particularly in vulnerable territories amidst the ongoing crisis, broadening the debate on the vulnerabilities of bodies as they move through the city. Regarding architectural spaces, it also proposes a reflection on the flexibility of domestic, professional, and institutional spaces when faced with the challenge of ensuring diverse uses and public health during periods of isolation and subsequent reopening.
Understood as a collective agent that confronts us with the strangeness of a new world while comforting us with its persistences, Memory is also a process of ongoing adaptation of the past in the present, carrying the power to preserve or erase certain information. Consequently, this axis poses the challenge of understanding how to use preexisting structures to reinvent daily life in cities. This axis also seeks to reflect on how architecture and urban infrastructure can contribute to building a collective memory that makes the process of (re)occupying, (re)building, and (re)signifying cities more welcoming.
In turn, Information opens new horizons for the debate on urban and social policies, focusing on a topic that touches all aspects of contemporary life but remains largely restricted to specialists. The goal is to shed light on issues of privacy and data protection, as well as experimentation with public and private data governance models in managing bodies and everyday routines, stimulating debate on collaborative mapping, facial recognition, algorithmic discrimination, the internet of things, and urban data science from a city governance perspective.
Concluding the five axes, Ecology, a fundamental theme for the balance between urban and natural areas, proposes a reflection on planning cities that are attentive to environmental balance and the development of productive activities. It focuses on the population's quality of life through topics such as climate change, low-carbon cities, urban agriculture, and food security.
In July and August 2020, preparatory debates for the co-curator competition were held, addressing topics related to the core essence of art and architecture exhibitions, aiming to reflect on the role of architects, urban planners, and other professionals in building fairer and more democratic cities. Open calls to select projects, activities, and interventions connected to the Biennial are scheduled for the second half of 2021.
This article was written by Romullo Baratto. The translation is powered by AI.
