The 36th Bienal de São Paulo, titled *Not All Travellers Walk Roads—Of Humanity as Practice*, takes its name from a poem by Afro-Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo. Chief curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, alongside curators Alya Sebti, Keyna Eleison, Anna Roberta Goetz, and Thiago de Paula Souza, has organized an edition featuring 125 artists, 28 of whom are Brazilian. The biennial includes a new performance program called Tributaries, created with the cultural center Casa do Povo, and debuts on September 5, 2025, with the public run from September 6, 2025 to January 11, 2026.
The biennial’s central question—'How do we exhibit silence?'—reflects a deliberate shift away from the hypervisibility and mediation typical of large-scale art events. By centering marginalized narratives, nonlinear paths, and ancestral practices, the exhibition challenges dominant art-historical frameworks and asserts that humanity is an ongoing, unfinished act. This edition matters because it repositions the Bienal de São Paulo as a site for introspection and resistance, amplifying voices historically excluded from mainstream Brazilian and global art discourse.