Commissioned by the Bienal de São Paulo in partnership with Sesc-SP, this three-day international, public symposium brings together artists, scientists, critics, writers, and scholars for a ranging, interdisciplinary inquiry into one of the major issues of our time: attention. The program is conceived by D. Graham Burnett and Stefanie Hessler.
At the heart of the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo is a commitment to “reaffirm the power of art as a unique place to focus attention in, to, and for the world.” This distinctive vision—placing economies of attention at the center of our relationship to works of art—marks the urgency of the question of attention in our moment. Attention lies at the nexus of perception and action, aesthetics and ethics, wealth and power. Whose eyes (and minds) are where, why, and for how long? These are central questions driving the evolution of “surveillance capitalism,” not to mention social life itself. New technologies and practices are reshaping our understanding of the attentional subject—with consequences for learning, politics, and collective existence.
With an eye on these pressing issues, this public symposium of talks, workshops, and performances entitled Practices of Attention draws on recent theoretical work, historical recoveries, and experimental investigations. It brings together key thinkers of our time in a varied and engaging program to dive deeper into and investigate from different angles the modes, conditions, and challenges to attention today.
November 16, Sesc Vila Mariana
9 a.m – 9.30 a.m OPENING
9.30 a.m – 9.45 a.m OPENING REMARKS
Fundação Bienal de São Paulo and Sesc-SP
9.45 a.m – 10.30 a.m INTRODUCTION
Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, D. Graham Burnett and Stefanie Hessler
10.30 a.m – 11.30 a.m LECTURE
Kasia Katarzyna: Attention and Its Enemy
11.30 a.m – 12.30 p.m LECTURE
Virginia Kastrup: Attention in the Aesthetic Experience and in the Work of the Cartographer
12.30 p.m – 1 p.m PERFORMANCE
Tamar Guimarães: The Rehearsal
2.30 p.m – 3.15 p.m PERFORMATIVE TALK
Stefanie Hessler: Attention as Curatorial Tool and the Politics of (Gendered) Attention
3.15 p.m – 3.45 p.m SCREENING
Aki Sasamoto: Delicate Cycle
3.45 p.m – 4.30 p.m LECTURE
Maria Cristina Franco Ferraz: For a Politics of Rumination in Times of Hyperconnected Dispersion
November 16, Bienal Pavilion
5.30 p.m – 7 p.m WORKSHOP
ESTAR(SER): All Senses on the Qui Vive
November 17, Pavilhão da Bienal
9 a.m – 9.30 a.m OPENING
9.30 a.m – 10.30 a.m LECTURE
D. Graham Burnett: What is the Work of Attention?
10.30 a.m – 11.30 a.m ARTIST TALK
Autoescola Insular of Atenta
11.30 a.m – 1 p.m PERFORMANCE
Raimundas Malašauskas and Marcos Lutyens: The Hypnotic Show
2.30 p.m – 3.30 p.m PERFORMANCE
Kapwani Kiwanga: Deep Space Scrolls
3.30 p.m – 4.15 p.m SCREENING + TALK
Thiago Rocha Pitta: Temporal Map of an Undefined Coastline
4.15 p.m – 5 p.m LECTURE
Ivone Gebara: Beyond Patriarchal Christianity: A Brief Outline for an Eco-feminist Ethics for Human Coexistence
5.15 p.m – 6 p.m PERFORMATIVE TALK
Yasemin Nur Toksoy: Kat’ı: Craft of Cutting Paper in Ottoman Period
6 p.m – 7 p.m PERFORMATIVE TALK
Catherine Hansen and Joanna Fiduccia: Two Varieties of Surrealist Attention. A Collaborative Talk
7 p.m – 7.45 p.m LECTURE
Yael Geller: Obsession as an Attention Phenomenon
8 p.m – 10.30 p.m PERFORMANCE
Isabel Lewis: Occasion
+ ONGOING ACTIVITIES:
Helen Singh-Miller: A Memory, Which Can Always Be Fished Out (workshop)
Helen Singh-Miller: Grand Union (screening)
Raimundas Malašauskas and Marcos Lutyens: The Hypnotic Show (installation)
November 18, Bienal Pavilion
9 a.m – 9.30 a.m OPENING
9.30 a.m – 10.30 a.m LECTURE
Justin E. H. Smith: The Attentional Practices of Some Common Invertebrates
10.30 a.m – 11.30 a.m PERFORMANCE
Helen Singh-Miller: A Memory, Which Can Always Be Fished Out
11.30 a.m – 12 p.m SCREENING
Tamara Henderson: What’s Up Doc?
12 p.m – 1 p.m PERFORMATIVE TALK
Vivian Caccuri: Mosquitoes Also Cry
2.30 p.m – 2.45 p.m SCREENING
Luiza Crosman: Diagrammatic Spells
2.45 p.m – 3.30 p.m ARTIST TALK
Bruno Moreschi: Another 33rd São Paulo Biennial—Actions, Results and Experimental Presentation
3.30 p.m – 4.15 p.m PERFORMANCE
Sal Randolph: The Sharawadji Effect
4.15 p.m – 5 p.m LECTURE
Jeff Dolven: All at Once Now
5 p.m – 5.45 p.m PANEL DISCUSSION
5.45 p.m – 6 p.m CLOSING REMARKS
Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, D. Graham Burnett and Stefanie Hessler
+ ONGOING ACTIVITIES:
Helen Singh-Miller: Grand Union (screening)
Raimundas Malašauskas and Marcos Lutyens: The Hypnotic Show (installation)