Antonio Ballester Moreno And Waltercio Caldas, 33rd São Paulo Bienal
September 27, 2018
Antonio Ballester Moreno: sentido/comum (common/sense), exhibition view, São Paulo Bienal, Brazil, 2018. Image: Pedro Ivo Trasferetti
Congratulations to Antonio Ballester Moreno and Waltercio Caldas on their participation in the 33rd Edition Bienal de São Paulo–Affective Affinities. The title, chosen by chief-curator Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, refers to the novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities (1809) and the thesis “On the Affective Nature of Form in the Work of Art” (1949), by Mário Pedrosa. Alongside twelve solo projects, Pérez-Barreiro invited seven artist-curators to conceive group shows with total freedom in the choice of the artists and the selection of artworks – the only requirement was that they also include artworks of their own authorship.
Antonio Ballester Moreno (Spain, 1977) approaches his curatorship at the 33rd Bienal to contextualize a universe based on the close relationship between biology and culture, regarding the history of abstraction and its interaction with nature, pedagogy, and spirituality. For Ballester Moreno, "All lives, without exception, are creative, and the purpose of every creation is not pure truth, or self-contained knowledge, but simply the improvement of existence. Because seeing things united, in their infinite diversity, is more enriching and satisfying."
The participants in sentido/comum include philosopher and pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel (Germany, 1782-1852) and Rafael Sánchez-Mateos Paniagua (Spain, 1979), who also contributed to the educational publication Convite à atenção (Invitation to Attention).
Waltercio Caldas (Brazil, 1946) has designed a space in which artworks by artists from various periods are confronted with works of his own authorship. He states, “Since an artist’s production deals with countless questions that vary over time, I chose artworks that deviate from what is most known about each of them and from our outstanding for their value and specificity.” The artist’s challenging view of his own work and often unusual confrontations open new possibilities of reading.