There is a spatial interaction between the 56 artists of the "national representations" and the 80 artists invited directly by the Bienal. With a total of 136 artists, the Bienal de São Paulo remains one of the biggest international exhibitions. The 25th Bienal turned out to be the most highly attended exhibition of contemporary art in the world in 2002 with 670,000 visitors. This year there will again be a major, systematic program of guided tours to introduce contemporary art to a whole generation of pupils and students, including many from the poorer suburbs of São Paulo. In order to emphasize the thematic unity of the overall exhibition, the invited artists and those representing the countries are mixed together on the 25,000 square meters of the spacious pavilion designed by Oscar Niemeyer. So, despite the complexity of individual voices, the end result will be a common concerto The Bienal speaks, as always, many languages - and, as far as grammar is concerned, in two numbers. It speaks in the plural, as the participating countries have indicated their own curators, and in the singular, for the Bienal chief curator has the opportunity to present his vision of the world art. The so-called Special Rooms which are traditional in São Paulo, were maintained and highlight some celebrated contemporary artists. There will also be a special room to pay hommage to Candido Portinari, whose 100 years of birth is celebrated together with the 450th annivesary of the city of São Paulo. As always, the biggest contingent of artists comes from Brazil: like all the countries it has one artist in the "national representations" segment, while another 19 Brazilians were integrated into the list of 80 invited artists from all over the world. The regions São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the rest of the country are equally represented, each providing one-third of the invited Brazilian artists. In addition to an intensification of the North-South dialogue, the Bienal's aims include the promoting oflinks between non-European cultures along a South-South orientation. It is predestined for this task, being based in one of the largest and most pluricultural cities in the world, where European, African, indigenous and Asian elements mix and enter into productive relationships. The Bienal Building itself - a cosmopolitan icon of modern architecture made of concrete, steel and glass that also embodies the city's industrial heritage - automatically places each work of art into a context of modernity and offers perfect conditions for presenting and appreciating contemporary art over an area measuring the equivalent of four soccer pitches.lts airy vault and its projecting ramp that cuts, baroque-like, through all three floors in irresistible spirals make it a privileged venue. Special attention was therefore devoted to the allocation of space. Conceptual, aesthetic and technical criteria were taken into account. The point of departure was the architecture of the building itself, which suggests a spatial grouping of media. The spacious ground floor, with a ceiling height of over seven meters and panoramic view of Parque do Ibirapuera, is particularly suitable for a sculpture park with large, free-standing threedimensional works. The first half of the second floor offers ideal conditions for a salon of painting, thanks to the favorable light that comes in from the east and west and, diffusely, from above and below. The second, darker half of this middle floor is perfect for a "multiplex" of videoinstallations, a planetarium in which viewers can lose themselves, undisturbed, in the cosmos of digitally generated pictures. This arrangement not only helps the visitors to keep their bearings, but also makes it easier to reach a criticaI mass within each medium. Various gravitational centers with their respective specific aesthetic "temperatures" thus develop in the building. Crescendi and diminuendi alternate abrupt1y. Photography, which allows cross-references to painting, sculpture and video, forms a central connecting link between the other three techniques and runs like a thread through the entire exhibition.
I There has never been a lack of attempts to create free territories in Brazil. We simply have to remind ourselves ofthe founding ofBrasÍ-
THE BIENAL AS AN EXTRATERRITORIAL ZONE
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