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confrontation goes beyond the subject of Western agnosticism vs. “primitive” religiosity pointed out by the curator. The West does not have the right cultural keys to make a correct semantic interpretation of the symbolic production of other cultures. Inevitably, therefore, it de-contextualizes such production, altering it and subjecting it to foreign codes and distorting it – as reflected in the title of the text which justified its presence at the Sao Paulo Biennial. The call for recognition of alterity and cultural plurality which has come forth from Latin America, for example, is still not universal or sufficient. The imaginary museum continues to be imaginary. The five artists from Eastern Asia selected by Tadayasu Sakai, Director of the Museum of Modern Art of Kamakura, Japan, reinforced the anti-Western thesis proposed by other regions. But they did so, paradoxically, with languages which did not pose any insurmountable barriers at the conceptual or visual levels. The critique of the rationalist and scientific twentieth century – which led to the creation of the atomic bomb – in the work of the Chinese artist Cai Guo Qiang, or the curious systems of deconstruction of the flags of the world which the Japanese artist Yukinori Yanagi entrusts to living
ants in his work entitled World Flag Ant Farm – which was awarded a prize in the invited artists section in Venice in 1993 – were both explicit metaphors. Whether from Indonesia or Korea, China or Japan, these contemporary artists are searching for a compromise which will reveal the nature of their current societies: an energetic mixture of tradition and the future. The most traditional section of the Biennial, the country exhibits, occupied the entire second floor, with the exception of the United States artist mentioned earlier. A joint effort by the general curator and the montage team, under the direction of the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, achieved a balanced distribution which put an end to the unfair regional discrimination so evident in earlier editions. As noted earlier, the countries which attended the Biennial each sent only one representative. Paradoxically, the question of nationality thus became a matter of secondary importance. The works had to speak for themselves in the resulting Tower of Babel. A dozen or so artists managed to achieve this goal. A similar number occupied a secondary level and acted as a counterpoint. A good many did not emerge from the general background, which helped to focus attention on the
Jim Hodges. In Blue, 1996. Silk flowers with thread. 144 x 83 7/8”.
outstanding works – although the montage itself did not set any a priori system of valuation. The attentive visitor had to make his or her own reconstruction of the regionalized proposal on the second floor in the context of the Universalis exhibitions. The catalogue for this section, without any special title, presents the works alphabetically. Special mention should be made here of the following national exhibits: the South African representative Willem Boshoff, with an installation entitled Blind Alphabet – an open work began two years ago, which proposes ways of avoiding prejudice based on black / white vision. This three dimensional alphabet has so far a total of 338 finished units and more are being constructed. In São Paulo, 77 were on show from the letter C (Coculiferous to Cymbiform). Each unit consists of a tall pedestal, a kind of black box-base with a mesh box on top. Inside, there is a sculpted wooden object. On the lid, a long description of this object in Braille; “If we invert the power relationship, the work generates a dependency on touch and the ability to read”. “Without the presence of blind persons, Blind Alphabet becomes a futile exercise in aesthetics”, the artist
Panamarenko. Panamá, Spitzbergen, Nova Zemblaya, 1996. Sculpture. 236 1/4 x 82 5/8 x 145 5/8”.