The 1990s and 2000s saw rapid worldwide growth in the number of large-scale, biennial exhibitions of contemporary art. While the biennial model took root within formerly peripheral locations, long-established Western biennials also pursued a more geographically expansive perspective. Focusing on the representation of Brazilian art within key biennials between 1998 and 2020, this project asks how the expansion and diversification of the biennial model have impacted knowledge and understanding of the contemporary art of formerly peripheral nations.

By selecting artists deemed worthy of international recognition (Zacarias and Spricigo, 2021) biennials play a role in establishing the formal, conceptual and geographical boundaries of contemporary art and its history. Since the 1990s, the biennial field has introduced new genealogies of contemporary art into mainstream knowledge, contributing to a wider post-global epistemological shift (Marchart 2014; Hoskote 2010; Kompatsiaris 2017). When formerly marginalised nations are repeatedly represented by a limited number of artists, however, biennials may also produce homogenised perspectives (Ott 2015; Lee 2012) and perpetuate exoticizing discourses (Asbury 2017).

Grounded by archival research and interviews, my analysis of how these biennials have shaped Brazilian contemporary art and its history will be framed by theories of cultural identity articulated by Bhabha (1994), Canclini (1995) and Hall (1996). By exploring the biennial as a site where knowledge about contemporary art and its history is produced, this project will provide a model applicable to other previously marginalised countries.