Artista enquanto curador

This paper starts from the curatorial model of the 33rd São Paulo Biennial, in which curator-artists were responsable for the choices and decisions that guided the processes of conception and organization of the set of collective exhibitions that encompassed the exhibition. By analyzing the intention of the chief curator, Gabriel Perez-Barreiro, to discuss curatorial models centralized in the figure of the curator and structured as thematic arrangements of works, the paper argues that the option for artists-curators implies an inevitable tensioning between the role of both curators and artists in organizing a major exhibition. Taking these issues into account, historical antecedents and theoretical references are mobilized to better delineate and understand the problematic around the convergences between artistic and curatorial practices, with special attention to the dissolution of categories and the exchange of roles. The discussion on possible equivalences of practices and authorial conflicts points to questions about the "curatorialisation" of artistic procedures in the institutional sphere.