Como falar da incerteza viva: 31ª e 32ª Bienais de São Paulo e seu público

Abstract

The culture of visiting museums in Brazil has a controversial history, as the institutions responsible for conserving, researching and disseminating the country's historical, artistic and cultural heritage to its entire population have been distant from the public for centuries. Recently, some institutions have made an effort to reach out to a diverse public, in an attempt to attract visitors and ensure that access to the national heritage truly belongs to everyone. In this scenario, the São Paulo Biennale is an interesting object of study as it reached 472 thousand visitors in its 31st edition, in 2014, representing the second lowest number of visits in the decade, and soon after, the 32nd edition of the Biennale, held in 2016, reached a historic record of 900 thousand visits, 92% of which were positive experiences, according to the Fundação Bienal. The present work seeks to investigate the reasons why two consecutive editions of the Biennale reached such discrepant visitor numbers, and what this can tell us about the contemporary public's relationship with art exhibitions and the culture of visiting museums in Brazil.