Happening throughout 8 days across 12 cities from north to south of Ecuador, the "no-bienal" biennale is holding its second edition from March 25 to April 1, 2025. Its unique name is devised to stand in opposition to the competitive structure that characterizes traditional biennials in the discipline. One of the objectives of this new edition is to demonstrate that there is unity in Ecuador, resisting the political strategies of division. Escuela Radical, the educational collective at the center of the event's organization, asserts that "it is not about centralization or decentralization, but simply about sharing without competing."
Escuela Radical is a formal school founded in 2019, whose collective approach to knowledge is based on experience, deconstruction, and the recognition of both diversity and millennia-old communities in places of natural resistance. In 2024, they organized the first edition of the no-bienal in Mexico City, conceived as a space for critical analysis of the reality presented in the media. The event emerged as a platform to access information about other Latin American realities, without a competitive structure, selection committees, rankings, or participation quotas.
This first edition brought together over 100 exhibitors from Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Italy, and Spain. Representatives from diverse fields such as painting, poetry, sculpture, music, printmaking, psychology, performance art, augmented reality, mapping, architecture, and city and territory studies, came together for a three-day festival of talks, discussions, activities, and celebrations. This year, both the duration and locations were expanded to increase opportunities for exchange around contemporary Latin American culture.
Related Article
Tegucigalpa’s Modernist Revolution: Metroplan and the Shift in the Urban Identity of 1970s HondurasWith a focus on direct engagement and the possibility of fostering genuine, in-person encounters, this year's program includes a wide range of individuals, collectives, and projects. The exhibitions span various creative fields, from experimental artistic creation with representatives such as PepaLab, Manifiesto Lab, and Nos solo de pan vive el hambre, to architectural practice and construction with studios like NOMA, REST Arquitectura, Estudio YURA, Bambu Lab and doT+ Architects. Urban and cultural studies are also present with groups such as Licuadora Gestora, Urban Sketchers Riobamba, and Matéricos Periféricos, along with editorial practices featuring representatives like Nicolás Valencia and Guillermo Romero (Microcuentos de arquitectura).
Other recent news in the field of Latin American architecture includes the announcement of the exhibition themes for the Peruvian and Uruguayan pavilions at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. The former highlights the ancient construction knowledge of the Uros and Aymara peoples, while the latter addresses cultural and material challenges related to water. In Chile, ELEMENTAL, the office led by Alejandro Aravena, is building a prototype for emergency housing in Viña del Mar, while in Mexico, La Cuadra San Cristóbal, designed by Luis Barragán, is opening to the public as a cultural center.
