SESC BIENNIAL

SESCServiço Social do Commércio

SESC is a private institution, created by the enterprise of

commerce and services. A non profit organization with a

national scope.

SESC’s action is a fruition of a solid cultural and educational project

which brought, since its creation 60 years ago, the mark of innovation and

of social transformation.The substantiation of this purpose was

done by an intense action in the cultural field and in its different

manifestations, addressed to the whole public, to many age brackets and social layers. This does not only mean to offer a diversity of events, but also to contribute effectively to lasting and significant experiences.

ACTIONS AND PURPOSESCulture: All kinds of art are welcome at SESC. Through art it is possible to

attribute or to enlarge the meanings of the world. Fine arts, cinema, digital culture, dance, literature, music, theater. Our programming confronts the quotidian and the routine. It focuses the diversity of ideas and the ways of felling and thinking. At SESC all persons can be integrated to the world of arts and through diversity and cultural manifestations can build new ways of life.

Environmental education: The responsible relationship with the environment – whereon we are included - is the base of the program for environmental education. Debates, campaigns, publications and partnerships with private and public institutions constitute SESC routine in benefit of a responsible relationship with the environment and the sustainable development.

Physical and sportive development: Health, pleasure, safety and autonomy guide the work of SESC in the areas of sport and physical activity. Extending the action beyond the oriented practice, SESC emphasizes the studies and researches related to physical interests as a fundamental part of the people´s general culture. Gymnastics and sportive courses have permanent programs as well as the organization of tournaments and championships.

Senior citizens: Activities that help to enhance the quality of life of senior citizens are the support of the program for seniors. Based on respect and preservation of the citizenship conditions, the Social Work with seniors aims to understand the needs of the elderly and offer opportunities for gathering, formation of groups, updating, leisure, physical activities and health. In short, it offers effective conditions to improve their quality of life. SESC also valorizes the approach among different ages aiming to reduce the generations´ conflicts and promote the exchange of experiences and knowledge.

Infantile: Coexist to play, play to have fun, having fun to grow. They encourage children towards the socialization, the aesthetical expression, the diversity of corporal movements, the connection with the environment and the access to scientific information that explains the daily phenomenon.

Tourism: To dialogue with other cultures, knowing its natural heritage and traditions is the proposal of the Program of Social Tourism. Discovering the urban, social and natural landscapes, being informed about the cultural and economical characteristics of the communities - their history and the geographic and environmental peculiarities; making friends and enjoying, keeping in mind the respect and preservation of the visited places are the main values that guide SESC Program of Social Tourism. The program promotes trips to different Brazilian regions; one-day tours or seasons in SESC vacation centers all over Brazil.

Free internet: Cultural and educational actions of SESC promote the social inclusion through the access to the information technologies. The information technologies transformed many fields of human action either at work, study or leisure. Knowing how to use the computer, its tools and programs became so important as knowing reading and writing.

SOME NUMBERS• 1.309. 090 total number of

registrations• 1.205.234 number of commerciant

among registrated• 9.510.939 presentation in 2006• 5.500 theatre shows staged in 2006• 4880 work shop organized in 2006• 4399 musical shows in 2006• 786 exhibitions in 2006• 67 gym rooms • 27 libraries• 23 rooms for internet• 22 swimming pool• 47 snack bar and restaurant

São Paulo’s Biennial of Art • Founded in 1951 by F. Matarazzo Sobrinho• It was part of a project to built a cultural production centre aiming at revitalizing the city and rebuilding its image also through big investments in infrastructures (MASP, MAM, Teatro Brasiliero de Comedia)• Acting as a window allowing the visibility of art in Brazil and external and internal artistic flows• Acting as a pyramid, a structure that gathers human, physical, financial resources, resulting in a monumental and oppresive volume and weight on the artistic and cultural scene• Bienal now is the largest event in Brazilian plastic art system, signalling a metropolis and nation connected with contemporanety and also is the second most importance art event worldwide

“By its definition, the Bienal should fulfil two major tasks: place Brazil’s modern art non merely in confrontation with, but also in living contact with the art of the world, while simultaneously seeking a position for São Paulo as a world art centre”

Crisis due to:• Structural lack of financing for the exhibition (private funds difficult to get)• Managerial approach not always in line with the aim of the Bienal (critical dimension, overcrowded, international edition)• Constant oscillation between an event allowing Brazilians to enter into contact with the international production and an event that allow the actively participation of Brazilians artists in the production of contents

“You can’t take the Bienal out of its social, economic and cultural context. In a country were people only talk about

football and where crime and violence run amok, any cultural manifestation is more than welcome”

(Siron Franco, artist)

The Bienal: dynamic format

“In Living contact”

• “ Less is more” Responding to the external situation of proliferation of biennials around the world it offers the exact opposite: emptiness.• Multiculturalism Wide participation of brazilians and South American artists. • Collaboration/Partecipation New exhibitions format, Bienal as a social spaces, a laboratory, a field of experimentation and exploration of the new possibilities of showing and debating contemporary art and the role of cultural events in the 21 century.• Cohabitation placing the Bienal once more in living contact with its history, its city, its peers and its age.

“It places itself in the position of observer and agent. It poses the question concerning the role of biennials as a tool and the history of biennials of São Paulo, about the relationship between art and consumption, about the dialogue between national and international production, about collective memory and imagination about the point of contact and distance between the Bienal and the city” (Ivo Mesquita, Curator)Themes:

28 Bienal de São Paulo: Not just Art

• Ground floor: Square, proposes a new relationship between Bienal and its surrounding opening itself up as the agora, a space for meetings, confrontations, frictions, interactions. It hosted different events such as performances, music and dance presentations• Video lounge: presents a selection of videos of historic performances. The proposal is to stimulate and allow the construction of thinking about what is seen there.• Open Plan: space completely open, revealing its structure and its architecture. Is it in this supposed void territory that intuition and reason will find fertile soil to highlight the power of imagination and invention.• Plan of readings: is the floor dedicated to the Arquivo Historico Wanda Svevo, open to free consultation by the public

• Conferences (role and the history of Bienal S.Paulo)• Library• Special projects (dance and music, parties)• Educational services

Structure:

Activities:

Artists

“I don’t, as an artist, to present answers, inclusively because I don’t have them. I want to create something that can lead to

different answers, built in collaboration with people that carry different social and cultural roles.”

(Maurício Ianês)

“The Kindness of Strangers” (M.Ianês) is a performance in order to investigate the relationship with the Other aiming at finding new ways to relate and new languages. Ianês, without clothes, food or any belongings, lived for 12 days in the Pavilion of the Bienal, relaying completely on the kindness of the public.

Mabe Bethônico presented a project with educational scope, he rediscovered Ibirapuera Park through meetings, documents and conversations and an experience of a visit to the park’s life’s time and movements, seeking to reveal circles of care and work that are imperceptible to its users.

“What interest me most in this research is observing the Ibirapuera’s time for caring. I have always been a user of that space, as a visitor of Bienal , and my wish was to look outside the pavilion and get to know the actual life that is unknown to the general public” (M. Bethônico)