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Dear journalists,

We are glad to announce the exhibitions and artists from the 8th Mercosul Biennial. Read below some informations about this edition and download the complete PDF archive in english in this link:

http://www.bienalmercosul.art.br/novo/arquivos/release_materia/1310664707.pdf

If you need images, interviews and more informations, feel free to contact us.

Best regards,

-- 
Adriana Martorano
Assessoria de imprensa
Fundação Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul
Fones: 00 55 51 3254 7532  / 3254 7536 / 9213 6558
email: imprensa@bienalmercosul.art.br
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Oficial Opening Ceremony: September 09th 2011

From September 10th to November 15th 2011

Everyday, from 09am to 09pm, free admision

Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Please visit www.bienalmercosul.art.br to follow the Project news. Read the curator’s blog: www.bienalmercosul.art.br/blog. Follow the Mercosul Biennial at Twitter and Facebook: http://twitter.com/bienalmercosul and www.facebook.com/bienaldomercosul.

Minc - Ministério da Cultura / Governo Federal - realization

Pró-Cultura RS / Secretaria do Estado da Cultura do Rio Grande do Sul / Governo do Rio Grande do Sul (Rio Grande do Sul State Culture Secretariat) – Finance

Gerdau – Master sponsor

Banco Santander – sponsor of the Eugenio Dittborn exhibition

Grupo RBS – Pedagogical Project support

Crown Embalagens – support

Lojas Renner – support

Procempa – TI support

SPH - Superintendência de Portos and Hidrovias [Ports and Waterways Department] – institutional supporter

Porto Alegre City Council – institutional supporter

MARGS – Museu de Artes do Rio Grande do Sul – institutional supporter

ICBNA – Instituto Cultural Brasileiro Norte-Americano – partner

The 8^th Mercosul Biennial, based in Porto Alegre/Brazil, will be open from September 10^th to November 15^th. Entitled Essays on Geopoetics, the 8^th edition is concerned with territoriality and its critical redefinition from an art standpoint. It will bring together 106 artists from 34 countries that develop relevant works that discuss notions of locality, nation, identity, territory, mapping and border through geographic, political and cultural aspects.

The curatorial project is constructed by seven great actions, addressed by exposing and activating strategies: Casa M, Travel Notebooks, Continents, Beyond Frontiers, Unseen City, Geopoetics and a featured artist exhibition, Eugenio Dittborn.

The Casa M is one of the key-projects of the 8^th Mercosul Biennial and is a place devoted to the local artistic community, people interested in art and culture, and art and related areas teachers and students. Located in central Porto Alegre (at Fernando Machado Street, 513), the Casa M started its activities in May and will be running with an intense cultural programming through seven months. Workshops, lectures, training courses for teachers, curatorial residences, a experimental exhibition programm and artistics performances in several styles compose the programming. The place has a living space, library and reading room, yard, studio, screening room and other spaces.

The exhibition spaces for housing the 8^th Mercosul Biennial are the Quayside Warehouses, Santander Cultural, MARGS – The Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art, and various other spaces in the state capital and other towns in Rio Grande do Sul.

More than 20 Rio Grande do Sul cities will welcome artists, works, exhibitions and educational activities, in Bagé, Caxias do Sul, Ijuí, Montenegro, Pelotas, Santa Maria , Santana do Livramento, São Miguel das Missões and Teutônia.

The 8th Mercosul Biennial Education Project offers teachers and mediators training activities, worshops, lectures, seminars, publications to diferent audiences and especially, the Casa M programming. The visiting public is provided with guided tours, free transport for state schools and different activities during the exhibition period.

The team of curators is made of seven latin-american professionals: José Roca (Colombia) - chief curator, Pablo Helguera (Mexico) - education curator, Alexia Tala (Chile), Cauê Alves (Brazil) and Paola Santoscoy (Mexico) - adjunct curators, Aracy Amaral (Brazil) - guest curator and Fernanda Albuquerque (Brazil) - assistant curator.

Created in 1996, the Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial Foundation is a private, non-profit organisation with a mission of developing cultural and educational projects in the field of visual arts, adopting best management practices and encouraging dialogue between contemporary art proposals and the community. On odd-numbered years the Foundation organises the Mercosul Biennial event, which is recognised as the world’s largest collection of events dedicated to contemporary Latin American art, offering thousands of people free access to culture and art.

Throughout its existence the Mercosul Biennial Foundation’s mission has always emphasised educational actions and the following guiding principles: focus on social contribution in pursuit of real benefits for its audiences, partners and sponsors; constant proximity to contemporary artistic creation and its critical discourse; transparency in its administration and all its actions; priority of investment in education and consolidation of the Biennial as a reference point in the fields of art, education, and research into those fields.

In its fourteen years of existence, the Mercosul Biennial Foundation has organised seven editions of the visual arts exhibition, in a total of 444 days of exhibitions open to the public, 57 different exhibitions, 3,882,672 completely free visits, 1,034,898 school bookings, 180,089 m² of prepared exhibition spaces, rediscovered and restored urban areas and buildings, 3,664 exhibited works and temporary urban interventions and 16 monumental works left for the city, 138 sponsors and supporters throughout its existence, the participation of 1,261 artists, more than one thousand direct and indirect jobs created for each edition, together with lecturers, talks, workshops, teachers’ courses and mediator training and employment for 1,248 young people. The Mercosul Biennial Foundation Board, and Administrative and Fiscal Advisors work voluntarily.

All the Foundation’s events and actions are provided to the public free of charge, with funds supported by a wide network of sponsors, partners and supporters

Tel: + 55 51 3254 7532 / email: imprensa@bienalmercosul.art.br

Press Room, high-resolution Image Bank and other information at: www.bienalmercosul.art.br