Considered one of the most important events in the international art circuit, the 26th International Biennial opened in São Paulo on 25 September with a special attraction: entry free of charge. The organisers estimate that around one million people visited the exhibition in 2004, a mixture of regular visitors and first timers keen to find out about contemporary art.

The theme – Image smugglers in a free territory – came from the idea of “wasteland” or “no man’s land”, not only in geographical, but also in political, social and aesthetic terms, with art pushing back the limits of reality. “Art is a free territory in that it evades any political, economic or physical control,” said curator Alfons Hug.

130 artists are represented in 2004, 69 in the national exhibitions, 52 invited to take part in the theme-based exhibition and eight in the special exhibition rooms, as well as one exhibition devoted to Cândido Portinari.

As it has since 1951, year of the first Biennial, the British Council took part by nominating and sponsoring the British artists, encouraging the interchange between Brazil and the UK and helping the organisers bring the works of the artists being represented. The artists were selected according to different criteria; for instance, those who are gaining a foothold in the UK and those who have already made a significant contribution to the art world.

in 2004, innovative pieces by Simon Starling and David Batchelor and a new installation by Mike Nelson, 2001 Turner Prize nominee, were representing the UK.

Venue:
26th International Biennial of São Paulo
Fundação Bienal de São Paulo – Ibirapuera park, gate 3
26 September to 19 December

Mike Nelson

Mike Nelson's large-scale architectural installations envelop the viewer in an unfolding narrative as they are led on a journey through a series of meticulously detailed mise en scène. His fictional constructs are steeped in both literary and cinematic references as well as drawing upon the geography, history and cultural context of the environment in which they are located. The weaving of fact and fiction is fundamental to Nelson's practice:

"For me, my work is more like a book than a stage set. The whole point of both is to draw people into a realm, to encourage them to think of what's going on as real ." The title for his work for the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, The Deliverance and The Patience, referred to two ships which sailed from Bermuda to Virginia in the 17th century. Comprising sixteen inter-connecting rooms and corridors built in a disused brewery on the island of Giudecca, Nelson revealed that a story of piracy in William Burroughs' Cities of the Red Night was in part both a narrative and structural influence on the work.

For the 26th Biennial of São Paulo, Nelson has co-opted part of the second floor of Oscar Niemeyer's pavilion to create a new installation. The work, constructed over a period of four weeks using local materials, incorporated a five-metre high curved wall  which extended out into the main exhibition hall and confined a womb-like space at the very heart of the building. Entered through double doors, this newly created space was built around the entrance-lobby for the goods lift. It contained a mezzanine level which was accessed by a spiral staircase found on one of the artist’s foraging trips to the reclamation yards of São Paulo. The surface finish and curve of the wall ensured it blended into its surroundings so as to appeared to be an integral part of Niemeyer’s celebrated building. Through meticulous attention to every detail in its construction, and the objects and items found within the space, Nelson’s imposing new work references both the history of the Biennial and Niemeyer’s architectural vision, and the complex relationships and belief systems they represent in Brazil and the city of São Paulo.

Richard Riley
Curator of the British representation

David Batchelor

David Batchelor’s work is a mix of colours and textures. Professor at London’s Royal College of Art, he makes use of the most varied of objects, from industrial trains and iron to discarded traffic signs and shop lights. For years, Batchelor has been working with colours, especially in interaction with the modern urban environment: commercial and industrial colours; electrical and chemical colours; shiny, reflective colours. He is the author of Chromophobia, published in 2000 (unpublished in Brazil) and Minimalismo (Movimentos da Arte Moderna collection – Cosac & Naify).

Simon Starling

Bringing together regional objects and different situations, Simon Starling sets up his work in interaction with the environments in which they are exhibited. In view of this, Starling came to Brazil last December to study the Biennial building and visit the University of São Paulo’s Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning in search of inspiration for the installation to be included in this year’s Biennial. The work of this Briton, who lives in Glasgow (Scotland), often portrays human interventions in nature. A sequence of photographs of his are on show in an exhibition organised by the British Council and MAC USP, Still Life/Natureza-Morta (SESI Gallery), portraying the recovery of trees endemic to Spain which had been planted in Scotland and which Starling replanted at Parque Los Alconorcales, from which they had initially been removed.