The 36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice opens on September 6, with free admission until January 11, 2026. With the opening of the exhibition, the Bienal also launches its public program, the Conjugations: a series of debates, gatherings, performances, and activations, some of which are developed in collaboration with cultural institutions from various parts of the world and presented at the Bienal Pavilion throughout the exhibition’s four-month run.

The edition will be led by chief curator Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung together with his conceptual team of co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz and Thiago de Paula Souza, as well as co-curator at large Keyna Eleison and strategy and communication advisor Henriette Gallus. The exhibition takes its cue from Afrobrazilian poet Conceição Evaristo’s enigmatic poem Da calma e do silêncio [Of calm and silence].

The initiative seeks to explore how these institutions, grounded in different geographies, conjugate the notion of humanity through their everyday practices. Each organization invited curates a meeting in São Paulo involving thinkers, artists, performers, and diverse audiences, activating global connections with the local context. The institutions are:

32º East (Kampala)
Africa Design School (Cotonou)
Afrotonizar (Salvador)
Ajabu ajabu (Dar es Salaam)
blaxTARLINES (Kumasi)
Center for Art, Research and Alliances / CARA (New York)
Central Bank Museum (Port of Spain)
Festa Literária das Periferias – FLUP (Rio de Janeiro)
Fondation H (Antananarivo)
Jatiwangi Art Factory (Jatiwangi)
Kunsthochschule Weißensee (Berlin)
Más Arte Más Acción (Chocó)
Metro54 (Amsterdam)
SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin)
Tanoto Art Foundation (Singapore)

Another highlight of this edition is the Apparitions project, an unprecedented initiative in the history of the Bienal de São Paulo, developed in partnership with the WAVA platform. Using augmented reality technology, fragments, extensions, and echoes of the works in the Bienal de São Paulo manifest themselves in Ibirapuera Park and specific locations around the world, chosen by the artists themselves – such as the banks of the Congo River, the border between Mexico and the United States, urban parks in São Paulo or cities in Africa and Asia. Through the app, visitors can access the works only at the designated locations, creating a situated and globally accessible sensory experience.

36.bienal.org.br