Sonia Gomes
choreographies of the impossible
Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
Curated by Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes, and Manuel Borja-Villel
The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo announces the opening of the 35th Bienal de São Paulo: choreographies of the impossible. After extensive research into the urgencies of our times, the curators affirm: “Our aim was to create an edition without categories or limiting structures… Our roster covers a broad spectrum of artistic forms and voices from all over the world. So, the question that remains is: how are the impossibilities of our daily lives reflected in artistic production?"
The Bienal will feature Sonia Gomes’s Quando o sol nascer azul (2021) or “When the Sun Rises in Blue,” an arresting wall work that recalls the sea and the movement of the waves. Crafted from a range of fabrics—some that have been in Gomes’s collection for almost twenty years—Quando o sol nascer azul is layered with fish casting nets and Renascença lace salvaged by her assistant in his hometown in northeastern Brazil.