Brazilian Contemporary Art in the Global Biennial Context, 1998-2020

20世纪90年代和21世纪初，世界范围内的大型当代艺术双年展数量迅速增长。虽然双年展的模式在以前的边缘地区扎根，但历史悠久的西方双年展也追求更广阔的地理视角。该项目关注巴西艺术在1998- 2020年双年展中的表现，探讨双年展模式的扩展和多样化如何影响了以前边缘国家对当代艺术的认识和理解。近几十年来，学术界对双年展模式（Filipovic 2010; Kompatsiaris 2017; Altshuler 2013）及其历史（Gardner & Green 2016; Jones 2016; Vogel 2010）的兴趣日益浓厚。全球化对艺术史的影响也得到了广泛的探讨（Iskin 2017; Elkins 2007; Belting 2013）。巴西艺术的国际化在欧美博物馆展览中得到了广泛的分析（Fialho 2005; Spricigo 2010）。然而，没有现有的研究解决双年展在塑造对国家（如巴西）当代艺术的理解方面所起的作用，这些国家以前被排除在西方主导的美国叙事之外。通过选择被认为值得国际认可的艺术家（Zacarias和Spricigo， 2021年），双年展在确立当代艺术及其历史的形式、概念和地理界限方面发挥了作用。自20世纪90年代以来，双年展领域将当代艺术的新谱系引入主流知识，促进了更广泛的后全球认识论转变（Marchart 2014; Hoskote 2010; Kompatsiaris 2017）。然而，当以前被边缘化的国家反复由有限数量的艺术家代表时，双年展也可能产生同质化的观点（Ott 2015; Lee 2012）并使异国情调的话语永久存在（Asbury 2017）。在这场辩论中，第24届<s:1>圣保罗双年展（1998年）被广泛认为是一个积极的例子：一个面向国际的、位于巴西的双年展，“从巴西的角度重塑了艺术史”（Lagnado， 2015年）。利用巴西现代主义的食人理论（将巴西艺术视为西方文化的积极挪用）作为框架，这次双年展将巴西作品与西方历史作品进行对比，并采用后殖民视角将巴西置于经典之中。这个孤立的案例本身被认为是有影响力的，以前并没有被视为我的项目所解决的更广泛现象的一部分，即连续的国际双年展如何共同塑造当代巴西艺术及其历史的维度。因此，该项目接近第24届<s:1>圣保罗双年展，与随后的双年展形成了对比的理解。利物浦双年展（1999年）和威尼斯双年展（2001年；2003年；2009年）将他们的方法局限于巴西性的概念，而哈瓦那双年展（2003年；2012年）和柏林双年展（2020年）通过强调全球化的话语，减少了国家艺术实践之间的区别。在档案研究和访谈的基础上，我对这些双年展如何塑造巴西当代艺术及其历史的分析将被Bhabha（1994）、Canclini（1995）和Hall（1996）所阐述的文化认同理论所框定。通过探索双年展作为当代艺术及其历史知识产生的场所，该项目将为其他以前被边缘化的国家提供一个适用的模式。

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, longestablished Western biennials also pursued a more geographically expansive perspective. Focusing on the representation of Brazilian art within key biennials 1998- 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.Recent decades have seen increased scholarly interest in the biennial model (Filipovic 2010; Kompatsiaris 2017; Altshuler 2013) and its history (Gardner & Green 2016; Jones 2016; Vogel 2010). The impact of globalisation on art history has also been extensively addressed (Iskin 2017; Elkins 2007; Belting, 2013). The internationalisation of Brazilian art has been widely analysed within Euro-American museum exhibitions (Fialho 2005; Spricigo 2010). No existing studies, however, address the role played by biennials in shaping an understanding of contemporary art from nations, such as Brazil, previously excluded from dominant Western-US narratives.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).Within this debate, the 24th São Paulo Biennial (1998) is widely celebrated as a positive example: an internationally facing, Brazilian sited, biennial that 'remade art history from a Brazilian perspective' (Lagnado, 2015). Using the Brazilian modernist theory of anthropophagy (which views Brazilian art as an active appropriation of Western culture) as its framework, this biennial contrasted Brazilian works with historical Western pieces and adopted a postcolonial perspective toward contextualising Brazil within the canon. This isolated case has been assumed as impactful in itself and has not previously been treated as part of the wider phenomenon my project addresses, namely how successive international biennials jointly shape the dimensions of contemporary Brazilian art and its history.This project thus approaches the 24th São Paulo Biennial in relation to subsequent biennials which contributed contrasting understandings. Whereas the biennials of Liverpool (1999) and Venice (2001; 2003; 2009) limited their approach to conceptions of Brazilianness, those of Havana (2003; 2012) and Berlin (2020) diminished distinctions between national art practices by emphasising discourses of globalisation. 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.