The proposal of the First BIENALSUR 2021 online session was based, under the premise of Thinking possible futures, on the reflection about the uncertainty we are currently going through, that leads each activity to wonder about the post-pandemic reality and their conditions of continuity. Both on that occasion and today, we sustain that that the worst case scenario would be to return to “normal life” as if nothing had happened. In the artistic field , that would mean to lose the possibility to think over the extent of the impact and how unattainable the right to have access to cultural expressions has become, a right that constitutes the pillar of our mission. 

Resilience, solidarity, collaboration, rethinking rules of art, the  improvement of the condition of artistic circulation, communication and overcoming inequalities… these are some of the terms that emerged in the previous session and that will be central to future wonders about concepts that are specific to the cultural realm and that are related to the construction of perspectives and practices, new or diverse visions to configure artistic spaces and experiences into platforms of critical thinking. It is in that sense that these sessions, since the very beginning of BIENALSUR, are held as an exchange of positions and  dialogues.  We propose to concentrate on some of the terms that have led us to design and develop a project that, for the last five year , has intended to set new rules for the artistic and cultural fields, highlighting diveristies, collaborative work, the creation of a possible we in the encounter of those who are different, that is, in a sense of togetherness. 

In this 2nd online session towards BIENALSUR 2021 and under the premise: Thinking possible future: Imagination, ways of seeing, perspectives, we will start the discussion about a series of stances such as “Eyesight comes before words”, “the point of view modifies the object”, “we only see what we know…” Statements that invite us to think how our perception of reality is modified by what we see and experience today, in this peculiar context of inequalities and dystopias resulted from the extent of the pandemia. 

On Saturday, May 23 we will meet again on #BIENALSURcommunity. The invitation is to reflect about questions that would enable us to imagine and reconfigure possible futures “from our balcony”, “from the window” or “the peephole in our door”, issues which have became the new physical boundaries of daily life to a significant number of people who, on a global scale, are experiencing this confinement. 

Aníbal Jozami, general director of BIENALSUR, and Diana Wechsler, artistic academic director of BIENALSUR, will talk via streaming with Enrique Aguerre, director of the National Museum of Visual Arts of Uruguay; João Fernandes, artistic director of the Moreira Salles Institute in Brazil; Valeria Gonzalez, Secretary of  Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture of Argentina; and the artists Iván Argote and Estefanía Peñafiel Loaiza, from France; and Agustina Woodgate from the USA.

We will be waiting for all of you on the BIENALSUR website (bienalsur.org), on Saturday 23rd at noon (12 argentine time). The meeting will be held via streaming with simultaneous translation into English at bienalsur.org/en and will be presented with interpretation in Argentinean Sign Language.

We will receive your questions for the participants of the 2nd online session towards BIENALSUR 2021 in the encuentros@bienalsur.org mail.