With three decades of history, the Curitiba International Biennial opens its 16th edition to the public on 14 June at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum and across various cultural spaces throughout the city, bringing together more than 300 artists from 38 countries across all five continents in a wide-ranging programme of exhibitions, installations, performances and urban actions. Under the theme "LIMIARES", curated by Adriana Almada and Tereza de Arruda, the Biennial invites reflection on the transformations of the contemporary world and the increasingly fluid boundaries between the human and the technological, the natural and the artificial, the physical and the digital.
"More than a concept, LIMIARES is a curatorial stance: to inhabit the border, to remain in the in-between, to create from uncertainty, generating new paths," state curators Adriana Almada and Tereza de Arruda.
Recognised as one of the leading contemporary art platforms in Latin America, the Biennial reaffirms in this edition its role as a space for international exchange, aesthetic experimentation and critical reflection on the present. The programme runs until 15 November 2026 and brings together artists, researchers, scientists and students in projects that weave together painting, installation, performance, artificial intelligence, video art, photography, sound art and augmented reality experiences.
MON as epicentre
The Biennial's principal exhibition hub takes place at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), a historic partner of the event and a space inseparable from its trajectory. The Biennial will occupy the Eye (Olho), the Tower, the Ramp, five exhibition halls and interstitial spaces, deepening a relationship built over more than two decades and marked by landmark exhibitions of international contemporary art.
Throughout its history, MON has hosted defining moments of the Biennial, such as Marina Abramović's performance in 2009; the major kinetic art exhibition by Julio Le Parc in the Eye in 2015; the group exhibition of Chinese artists in 2017; and the presentation of the iconic sculpture "Spider" by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois in 2019.
Once again, the largest art museum in Latin America opens its doors to house the Curitiba International Biennial, which reaches its 16th edition with the Oscar Niemeyer Museum as its main venue.
The major highlight of this edition will be the exhibition "Poetics of Memory and Matter" (Poéticas da Memória e da Matéria), curated by Tereza de Arruda and led by Chiharu Shiota, one of the most significant figures in contemporary art worldwide. Renowned for her immersive installations built from threads, everyday objects and emotional architectures, the artist will occupy the Eye and the Araucária 1 and Araucária 2 spaces of MON with four unpublished, site-specific works conceived especially for Curitiba. The main installation will use around 300 kilometres of thread — a distance equivalent to the journey between Curitiba and Florianópolis — making it the largest site-specific installation the artist has ever created in South America.
Her powerful work, along with that of other Asian artists taking part in the Biennial, also enters into dialogue with the museum's collection from that continent.
The Biennial launched an international open call to incorporate letters, drawings and personal accounts sent in by the public into Shiota's work, an initiative that has already mobilised hundreds of participants. In dialogue with the poetics of the Japanese artist based in Berlin, the MON Tower will bring together works by Brazilian artists such as Iêda Jardim, André Azevedo, Evandro Soares, James Kudo, Luiz Mauro and Marina Camargo.
Also standing out in LIMIARES is the renowned Spanish artist Max Esteban, whose artistic practice examines the critique of the human condition in the face of technology through photography and video art. Another contemporary artist to be revealed to audiences at MON is the Chinese Xia Hang, known for his interactive mechanical sculptures made of polished stainless steel, which blend a cyberpunk aesthetic with the playful notion of "toys for adults."
International curatorship
The curatorial text of the 16th Biennial is authored by Adriana Almada and Tereza de Arruda. The edition is structured around different curatorial axes, developed by an international team of guest curators who articulate their own exhibition clusters, often connected to one another through conceptual, territorial and technological affinities.
An Argentine art critic, writer and editor based in Paraguay, Adriana Almada is recognised for her strong engagement in the study of Latin American contemporary art. A former vice-president of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) in Paris, she was honoured by the Government of France with the Order of Arts and Letters. Sharing curatorial direction of the Biennial, Brazilian art historian Tereza de Arruda brings the experience of someone who has moved between São Paulo and Berlin since 1989, with established projects across Europe, Asia and the Americas and involvement with the Havana Biennial.
Among the guest curators is the Spanish-Argentine Ferran Barenblit, internationally known for examining the political and social role of cultural institutions. A former director of MACBA in Barcelona, Barenblit shares with Adriana Almada the curatorship of the exhibition "Provisional Cartography" (Cartografia Provisória) by Spanish artist Max Esteban at MON.
The connection with contemporary Asian production is established through Chinese curators Xiao Ge and Windy Lv, who bring to the Biennial a perspective grounded in historical and conceptual rigour. At MON, they propose reflections on the environment, temporality and the transformations of contemporary experience through the dialogue between art, technology and East Asian visual culture.
With experience at the Biennial of the End of the World (Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Argentina) and known for discovering and championing new talent from emerging generations, the Italian Massimo Scaringella curates the "Rifrações" (Refractions) axis alongside Antonella Pisilli. This video art programme brings together women artists from French Guiana, Africa and Albania.
The North American Royce W. Smith, currently Dean of the College of the Arts at California State University, Long Beach, curates the "Camuflagens" (Camouflages) axis, a collective investigation into perception, technology, concealment and the construction of contemporary reality.
A Biennial spread across the city
Beyond MON, the programme occupies more than ten cultural institutions in Curitiba. Among them are the Paranaense Museum (MUPA), the Paraná Museum of Image and Sound (MIS-PR), the Alfredo Andersen Museum, the Museum of Photography, the Print Museum – Curitiba Memorial, the Museum of Indigenous Art and the Municipal Museum of Art (MuMA).
This urban presence, anticipated by Curitiba Art Week and by the Curitiba Biennial University Circuit (CUBIC5), also extends into the city's public transport system, an international benchmark in urban mobility. The Biennial will stage activations across 22 bus terminals, 300 urban stops and more than 1,000 city buses. Throughout the programme, until 15 November, video art works curated by Flavio de Carvalho will be shown on the screens of the integrated system, while augmented reality actions will occupy terminals and tube stations. This programme begins on 16 July.
The 16th Curitiba International Biennial is presented by the Ministry of Culture, Federal Government – On the Side of the Brazilian People, MON, MAC Paraná and Paraná Festival – State Secretariat for Culture (SEEC) – Government of Paraná. Support: Curitiba Cultural Foundation (FCC) – Curitiba City Hall.
