A Briton Will Be The Curator Of The 31st SP Art Biennial

04/10/2013 - 03h00

The curator of the 31st São Paulo Biennial, scheduled for next year, has already been chosen: Charles Esche, of the U.K., director of the Van Abbe museum, in Eindhoven, Holland. Esche will be announced by the president of the São Paulo Biennial, Luis Terepins, next week, and will attend the event, in São Paulo.

It is a radical choice, especially after the museum-like exhibition of the event's last edition, organized by curator Luis Pérez-Oramas.

Esche was one of the five curators who presented proposals for the Biennial and he is known for dealing with political issues in art. His project addresses the role of art in globalization.

After two biennials with many Brazilian and Latin American artists, the event's directors seem to have tried to diversify its geopolitical aspect.

The selected curator isn't a specialist in Brazilian art, as Pérez-Oramas is. Esche didn't even visit the past editions of the São Paulo Biennial. Aside from being a renowned curator, however, he is involved with the Asian and Middle East production, and has participated in biennials in those regions: Gwangju (South Korea), Istambul (Turkey) and Riwaq (Palestine).

Esche is also known for bold projects. For example, he was one of the heads of the "Picasso in Palestine" exhibition in 2011, one of the most talked about events in the art circle. The exhibition consisted of the painting "Buste de Femme" (1943), by Pablo Picasso, which belongs to the Van Abbe, at the International Academy of Art Palestine, in Ramallah, in the West Bank, one of the regions in which the Israeli-Palestine conflict is most intense.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO