Juntos [Together]

In response to the proposal made by Alejandro Aravena, director of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – Reporting from the front, the curator chosen by the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo Washington Fajardo will present the exhibit Juntos [Together]. The project for the Brazilian Pavilion seeks to identify the stories of people who struggle for and effect change in the face of institutional passivity in the nation's big cities, realizing architectural achievements which, though they take place through slow processes, are possible solutions to the political breakdown in territorial planning. According to the curator, “the exhibit is a composition of these trajectories and partnerships, of the process of the encounter between the activist, the fighter, and the architect and architecture, empowering them through the development of the new space.”

Composed of three rooms - “Crossroads”, “Echoes” and “Together” - , the exhibitions brings together mockups, maps and a body of videos dedicated to each one of the 15 selected projects. Additionally, 38 posters have been printed to be distributed to the visitors for free, with approximately 3.000 copies each. The exhibition catalogue is made up by the kit of folded posters, accompanied by explanatory texts. “The poster is the medium of the public space, and we also want to talk about this communication”, complements the curator.

According to Luis Terepins, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, the project for the Brazilian participation designed by Fajardo goes to heart of the event's general theme, as well as the foundation's objectives. “By establishing this dialogue between Brazilian architecture and contemporary discussions on an international level, the Bienal is working to accomplish its central mission to spread the nation's culture in a global context”.

Black culture, the black population, historical centrality and access to culture through architecture and design content are the stories told by the Brazilian pavilion in its search for an understanding of what it means to be “together,” as further emphasized by Fajardo. The exhibition combines processes and their varied stages of development, whether complete, ongoing, yet to be undertaken or unfinished. They are processes that deal with architecture, urban planning, cultural heritage, publications, activism and social technology. As such, the exhibition also consists of videos, photos, letters, articles, poetry, texts, facts, drawings and data, “composing a memorial for these lives immeshed in the fight to improve the constructed environment, in their communities, in the revival of a way of being and knowing.” To realize Juntos, the Brazilian curator selected the projects listed below. Their respective authors and those involved in their development are also listed.