SAO PAULO.- Fundação Bienal de São Paulo has appointed Jochen Volz as the curator of Brazil’s official delegation to the 57th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, which will be held between May 13 and November 26, 2017. Jochen Volz (1971, Braunschweig, Germany – based in São Paulo) was the curator of the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo (September 7 to December 11, 2016). The art critic has also been programme director at the Serpentine Galleries in London and artistic director of the Inhotim Institute. He curated Portikus in Frankfurt, co-curated the international art exhibition at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) and the 1st Aichi Triennial in Nagoya (2010), and was guest curator at the 27th Bienal de São Paulo (2006).

For Volz, Venice is world renowned as a platform that promotes diversity, respect and freedom in the visual arts, forming a plural space for experimentation and education. “Sharing the event’s faith in the transformative potential of art and culture, I am convinced that we are going to put together a show that will dialogue fully with the present concerns of artists the world over”.

The choice of curator was announced this Monday (December 5) at the Bienal Foundation, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, José Serra, and the International Program director of the Ministry of Culture, Adam Muniz, representing the Minister of Culture of Brazil, Roberto Freire.

The act attests to the tighter cooperation between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture and the Bienal Foundation. For Minister José Serra, “an indispensable aspect of cultural diplomacy is continuity; only through the constant and permanent diffusion of Brazilian cultural production will it be possible to reach our prime goal, which is the consolidation of Brazil’s image abroad. In this sense, Brazil’s continued participation in the Venice Biennale is a clear sign of the relevance of cultural promotion in Brazil’s foreign policy”.

For Minister Roberto Freire, “the re-sealing of this partnership is fruit of the efforts of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bienal Foundation to continue to promote Brazilian culture on one of the art world’s greatest stages, reinforcing Brazil’s interest in stepping up its efforts toward the internationalisation of Brazilian culture”.

“Responsibility for organising Brazil’s Venice Biennale delegation has traditionally fallen to the Bienal Foundation, an independent institution respected worldwide and committed to the production and appreciation of contemporary art”, says Luis Terepins, the exhibition’s commissioner and Chairman of the Bienal de São Paulo Foundation.

On Brazil’s participation at the Venice Biennale
The Brazil pavilion, built in 1964, is an artistic embassy in which the country exhibits selected artists to represent Brazil for each edition. Since 1995, the Brazilian government has entrusted this choice to the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, the second longest-standing foundation of its kind in the world. Brazilian delegations are organised jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – which maintains the pavilion –, the Ministry of Culture – through the National Arts Foundation (Funarte) – and the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo – which chooses the curator and produces the exhibition.