Context
The starting point of this encounter comes when in May 2009 the Sao Paulo Biennial Fundation proposed to cancel the 29th edition of the Biennial for the coming year (2010) mainly because at that time the Foundation had not yet chosen its new President. Although launched in the midst of this institutional crises the main reason for developing this event was the rising necessity of fostering a meeting of a collective that is already shaping the role of curating contemporary art globally. This desire is certainly based on past successful events that the Forum Permanente, together with its partners, have organised in the last few years, such as the "The Global turn of contemporary art in Brazilian Collections" (2008), “Curating Transnational Projects: the Local in the Global” (2009), the coverage of the Documenta 12 (2004-2008), a series of workshops on curating issues and also two international symposiums we organised in partnership with our local Kunsthalle, Paço das Artes: Patterns in Disarray; Contemporary Thought in Art (2005) and Space, Acceleration and Amnesia: Art and Thought in Contemporaneity(2007).
We thought that it could be a good idea to have this encounter just before the opening of the São Paulo Biennial, since curators, artists and other important professionals of the visual art world, be it national or international, that will be attending our Biennial could, also join us. Instead of a seminar format we considered it more interesting to create an informal environment for discussion, exchanges and networking.
