PORTO ALEGRE.- The 7th Mercosul Biennial runs from October 16 to November 29 2009 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil. The exhibitions will be open to the public for 45 days in three exhibition spaces – The Quayside Warehouses, Santander Cultural and MARGS – The Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art – together with other public spaces in the state capital. Approximately 70% of the works will be produced by the artists especially for this Biennial. The full list of artists taking part in this edition will be released in early July.

This edition proposes a series of methodologies and actions which demonstrate contemporary art’s diversity of approaches and functions. The curatorial concept is therefore organised into seven exhibitions, an education programme, a publishing and communication programme, a radio system (Radiovisual) and several cultural programmes running throughout the Biennial inside and outside the exhibition spaces.

Mauro Knijnik, president of the 7the Mercosul Biennial, believes that organisation of the event puts Porto Alegre and the state of Rio Grande do Sul in a privileged position, occupying a key place in the international art scene: “The Mercosul Biennial’s characteristics of quality and relevance have made it a reference point for excellence of concept and organisation. Part of this development is certainly the result of hard work and care for all the inherent detail of the arts, especially in terms of its curatorial concept.”

The 7th Mercosul Biennial’s curatorial concept affirms the meaning and importance of artists as social players and constant producers of necessary critical meaning. Entitled Screaming and Hearing (Grito e Escuta), the 7th Mercosul Biennial aims to explore multidirectional communication – between a world in conflict and an artist who listens and responds; between an artist who produces meaning with the aim of a world that listens – through multiple languages. The project addresses sound, movement of the body, social interaction and educational interaction as integral parts of experiencing art today.

In this way the artists in the 7th Mercosul Biennial occupy the role of curators, developing the exhibition programme and education programme, devising and coordinating the editorial programme and its publications, the image and communication of the Biennial as a whole.

Under chief curatorship of Victoria Noorthoorn, from Argentina, and Camilo Yañez, from Chile, the curatorial team for the 7the Biennial includes the following artists: Education curator: Marina De Caro (Argentina); Adjunct curators: Roberto Jacoby (Argentina), Artur Lescher (Brazil), Mario Navarro (Chile) and Laura Lima (Brazil); Editorial curators: Erick Beltrán (Mexico) and Bernardo Ortiz (Colombia); Co-curator of the Radiovisual programme: Lenora de Barros (Brazil).