biennale

The Bienal de Dança do Ceará started in 1997 in the capital of Ceará State, Fortaleza. During its 10 years and 6 editions (held uneven years), it has helped to bring a great change in local ideas on dance. The biennale consists of residencies, seminars and courses. Discussions take place and there is a great opportunity to exchange information, provide local artists with venues to produce their work. During its last edition, director David Linhares and Artistic and Teaching Coordinator Andrea Bardawill expanded its program. They visited a number of cities in Ceará State.

There have been earlier initiatives to establish a Design Biennale in Brazil. In the 60s and 70s two editions were held in Rio de Janeiro by initiative of the then Industrial Design Institute of the Modern Art Museum (IDI-MAM), under the leadership of, among others, Pedro Luiz Pereira de Souza and Karl Heinz Bergmiller. In 1990 two editions were held in Curitiba, by initiative of governmental organs, under the leadership of the curator Ivens Fontoura.

The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is one of the most important international institutions to foster contemporary art, and its impact on the development of Brazilian visual arts is widely recognized. The Arts Biennial, its most significant accomplishment, not only presents to diverse audiences the output of Brazilian and foreign artists, but also attracts the gaze of the world to our country’s contemporary art.