Jacopo Crivelli Visconti is to curate the 2020 São Paulo Bienal. The Italian curator, who is based in the Brazilian city, is a former staffer at the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo (from 2001 to 2009) and, in 2007, curated the Brazilian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Some disquiet has been expressed on social media however that the job has gone to a white male: curator Pablo Leon de la Barra points out that the bienal has only ever had two female curators in its 68 year history, Sheila Leirner in 1985 and Lisette Lagnado in 2006. It has also never had an Afrobrazilian curator.
Crivelli Visconti’s CV includes Memories of Underdevelopment at the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego, in 2017; and solo shows for Héctor Zamora at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo in 2016 and Sean Scully at Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo in 2015. In 2019 he is back in Venice, this time curating the Cypriot pavilion. His appointment comes after five curators were invited to pitch proposals. Joining his curatorial team will be adjunct curator Paulo Miyada (curator, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo), and guest curators Carla Zaccagnini (artist, São Paulo-Malmo); Francesco Stocchi (curator, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam); and Ruth Estévez (curator at large, Rose Art Museum, Boston; director, LIGA DF, Mexico City).
17 January 2019
