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biennial borders.” The 6th Biennial’s curatorial project was inspired bt the metapor “The river’s third shore”, an image taken from Brazilian author Guimarães Rosa’s short story of the same title. For the curator, the third shore symbolizes the possibility of “a shift in perspective,” which implies an opportunity to create a third way to perceive reality, breaking with the dualities that define and constrain it, such as nationalism and globalization, right and left, good and evil, figuration and abstraction, among others. The third shore is also, for the curator, a “metaphor for the region’s geography, with riverine borders,” and alludes “to the antagonism between a closed-up regionalism and an indistinct globalization. Also, according to Pérez-Barreiro, the third shore metaphor makes reference to the methodological principle adopted in the curatorship: “the dialog between two subjects whose experiences are different, which generates a third reality.” The curator highlights, on the other hand, that by having not a defined topic but a metaphor, this eddition of the Biennial “is a look from Mercosur to the world, a gaze that starts in the local and projects into the global. This Biennial is held from Mercosur, but it does not close on itself.” A team of curators –no longer national curators— articulates this vision “from Mercosur to the world and from the world to Mercosur.” They all have a direct relationship with Mercosur countries and some international activity or experience. “They represent different voices,” Pérez-Barreiro argues, “and this Biennial accepts and promotes diversity and freedom of expression.” As part of the 6th Biennial, the Zona Franca section posited itself as “a zone of no constraints for the curator,” both from the geographic and from the cultural standpoint. The basic idea was to present works of art that are deemed significant among recent productions. Zona Franca is organized with the profile of a collective exhibition where the guiding paradigm is the criterion of excellence, in the view of each participating curator. No other axis but this one organizes the section —the artist
and the work on display are an important landmark in current production. The participating curators in Zona Franca were Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, Inés Katzenstein, Luis Enrique Pérez Oramas, and Moacir dos Anjos. 2 Among the works they selected, I want to highlight here the contributions of Nelson Leirner, Cildo Meirelles (both
Brazilian, proposed by Moacir dos Anjos), Harrell Fletcher (American, proposed by Pérez-Barreiro), Francis Alÿs (Belgium) in collaboration with Cuauhtemoc Medina and Rafael Ortega (both from Mexico, proposed by Moacir dos Anjos.) In his installation A Lot(e), Nelson Leirner works with a symbolic rep-
Harrell Fletcher. The American War, 2005. Framed digital prints and ephemera. Variable dimensions. Courtesy White Columns, New York, USA.
Nelson Leirner. A Lot(e), 2006. Paper, wood, rubber, fabric, plastic, metal, plaster and wool on formica bases. 92 1/2 x 157 2/5 x 354 1/4 in. (235 x 400 x 900 cm.). Courtesy Galeria Brito Cimino.