Not All Travellers Walk Roads—Of Humanity as Practice

This marks the first time ever that one of the oldest and most significant art biennials has been held in Germany. The edition, conceived specifically for Berlin, presents a unique constellation of artistic positions, including newly developed, adapted, and site-specific works.

Taking as its starting point Conceição Evaristo’s poem “Da calma e do silêncio” (“On Calm and Silence”), in which she writes: “Not all travelers / follow paths. / There are hidden worlds / into which only the silence / of poetry penetrates,” the exhibition conceives of listening as an essential aspect of a practice of humanity. Through such intense attunement, it becomes possible to open oneself to relationships, to enter into connection—with other beings, as well as with landscapes and waterways, and with the ancestral origins spanning many generations that people carry within them—and to create spaces of coexistence and care.

This concept of relationship connects not only the cities of São Paulo and Berlin, but also, in particular, the respective exhibition venues with one another. Designed as a modernist landmark, Oscar Niemeyer’s Biennial Pavilion is located in São Paulo’s Ibirapuera Park, which is characterized by the waters of the Córrego do Sapateiro. The HKW building, dating from the same era—the former Congress Hall designed by Hugh Stubbins—is situated on the edge of Berlin’s Tiergarten on the banks of the Spree. Both locations form porous thresholds between architecture and landscape, interior and exterior, human and non-human worlds. Here, the exhibition’s central metaphor of the estuary—the mouth of a river—takes on particular significance: as a setting where different bodies of water converge and which, through cultivation, interrelationships, reciprocity, and shared vulnerabilities, forms the basis of life for a multitude of living beings.

The exhibition conceives of humanity as a verb—as a living practice that can enable the renegotiation and dismantling of prevailing asymmetries. In their installations, performances, sound works, narratives, and spatial interventions, the participating artists critically engage with the political and colonial legacies embedded in modernity. In doing so—from São Paulo to Berlin and beyond—they articulate forms of resistance against dehumanization, the overexploitation of nature, and monocultural thinking. At the same time, the works cultivate gestures of care, concern, and standing up for one another that extend beyond the human realm to encompass animal and plant life, memory, and spirit. Beauty emerges here as a political force rooted in the ordinary, the fragmented, and the unfinished.

Not all travelers follow paths—humanity as a practice is an invitation to set out in search of the traces of such a practice. Which paths do we take in doing so? In what ways can we allow ourselves to stray from the path, leave the road behind, wander off course, lose ourselves, and discover other worlds?

Featuring more than 30 international artists from a broad spectrum of practices, the Berlin Edition presents a condensed version of the 36th São Paulo Biennial.

The exhibition is a plea for joy, for the power of imagination, and for dreaming—not as escapism, but as vibrant forms of the expression of humanity.

Featuring:

Amina Agueznay, Malika Agueznay, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Leo Asemota, Maria Auxiliadora, Aline Baiana, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Rebeca Carapiá, Manauara Clandestina, Christopher Cozier, Gervane de Paula, Théodore Diouf, Juliana dos Santos, Cevdet Erek, Theo Eshetu, Tanka Fonta, Forensic Architecture, Laila Hida, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Leiko Ikemura, Mao Ishikawa, Julianknxx, Lidia Lisbôa, Mohamed Melehi, Emeka Ogboh, Olu Oguibe, Alberto Pitta, Edival Ramosa, Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos, Ming Smith, Sérgio Soarez, Chaïbia Talal, Wolfgang Tillmans

The 36th São Paulo Biennial was conceived by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung together with co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz, and Thiago de Paula Souza; co-curator-at-large Keyna Eleison; strategy and communications consultant Henriette Gallus; and deputy co-curators André Pitol and Leonardo Matsuhei. The Berlin edition is curated by Alya Sebti.

Partner of the Traveling Exhibitions Program

The exhibition is part of the “Traveling Exhibitions” program launched by the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo in 2011. The traveling exhibitions have evolved into a significant extension of the São Paulo Biennial: they enable the works and debates presented at the Cicillo Matarazzo Pavilion to be reconfigured in dialogue with various local contexts, thereby fostering new interpretations and relationships with diverse audiences beyond the main exhibition. As part of the 36th edition of the Biennial, this initiative will reach fifteen new locations in Brazil and internationally.

About the Partners

The opening of Not All Travelers Follow Paths – Humanity as Practice will take place as part of Berlin Art Week.

• Not All Travelers Follow Paths – Humanity as Practice
• 36th São Paulo Biennial, Berlin Edition
• September 12–December 6, 2026; opening September 11, 6:00 p.m.