Chief curator: Lisette Lagnado Co-curators: Cristina Freire (Brazil), Rosa Martínez (Spain), José Roca (Colombia), and Adriano Pedrosa (Brazil). Guest curator for Marcel Broodthaers: Jochen Volz (Germany/Brazil) For the first time in the history of the Bienal de São Paulo (founded 1951), this edition is grounded in a borderless conception, which does away with the so-called national representations. This attitude reflects the institutional independence of the Fundação Bienal, the autonomy of a conceptual project, and the contemporary moment. The 27th Bienal de São Paulo is situated at the intersection of two lines of thought: the sense of “construction,” which lies at the basis of neoconcrete experimentation, and a “farewell to aestheticism” – processes that guided the experimentation of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (Rio de Janeiro, 1937–1980). In the exhibition, these two lines are translated into “Constructive Projects” and “Programs for Life”. A misunderstanding continues to hinder the sense of constructivity, reducing it either to geometry, or to formalism. The “artist-constructor” – as Hélio Oiticica called this tendency that could accommodate a variety of “isms” – or the expression “constructive will” evoke a social approach of “cultural characterization”. The constructor is someone who discusses quality of life. His/her dream is to be able to work on the social dimension, to give a public response to political events. This approach leads to a difficult debate: when the artist puts his/her talent on behalf of the environment, taking part in the configuration of everyday life, what is the remaining difference between art and life, representation and reality? The title of the exhibition, How to Live Together, inspired by the lectures and seminars given by Roland Barthes at the Collège de France, presented itself naturally as an unfolding of a reflection on the construction of a common space, as it sets forth the very controversial theme of the coexistence of different peoples, of the rhythms of production, of cooperative practices. Would the creative potential be able to build freedom? How to really engage in exchanges between art and society? Barthes’s lectures contemplated these burning issues, to arrive at the ethical sense of Living-Together, considering various kinds of places (from banquet tables to brothels), as well as diverse modes of co-habitation (couples, groups, families). Barthes raised an issue that an art exhibition cannot leave unexplored: “Whom am I contemporary to? Whom am I living with?” Within this panorama, the curatorial team conceived six blocks, which interconnect with the 27th Bienal de São Paulo (titles and subtitles still provisory): I – Constructive Projects - Art and Architecture: architectural conceptions (real or imaginary) for new forms of behavior; what activates a space and makes it a place; - Individual rhythms and bio-power: relationship between man and machine, the redefinition of kinetic art from bio-power, different rhythms of production; - Practices of reconstruction: which discourses reveal the violence of the changes in the political sphere? How to recognize and study the marks left by cultural manifestations? II – Programs for Life - Homage to Marcel Broodthaers: the fetish of the signature of the artist and circulation of the artwork; for whom does the artist create? What is the power of the institution? - Exchange between artists and non-artists: inclusion of the non-artist as fundamental in the creative process; the immaterial work: affect and value at the basis of a new constructivity; - The Brazilian state of Acre, the issue of borders: the attempt to formulate a “collectivist ethics”; the example of the “other” pattern of production and subsistence; the forest and its biodiversity.