The first Bienal do Mercosul

This chapter offers a historical overview of the first Bienal do Mercosul (1997) and the unique convergence of progressive cultural policies and neoliberal economic interests that made possible the creation of the only biennial founded on a trade bloc. It examines the innovative curatorial model developed by chief curator Frederico Morais, which transcended national borders to highlight artistic affinities across Latin America. Morais positioned the region not merely as an exporter of individual artists or an importer of foreign trends, but as a producer of original art movements and theories with global significance. Three decades later, the inaugural Bienal do Mercosul remains a landmark in reshaping how Latin American art is exhibited and understood, both regionally and internationally. While grounded in Morais’s commitment to rewriting art history from the margins, the Bienal also paradoxically contributed to the formation of a new, widely recognized canon of Latin American art. The choice of Porto Alegre – Brazil’s southernmost state capital, long considered peripheral in global art circuits – underscored the Bienal’s ambition to recentre the narrative by situating the city within the cultural and geographical context of the Mercosul region.