On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, the XXIII Cerveira International Art Biennial (BIAC) is honouring the date by devising and presenting a programme whose central motto and issue is freedom.

Inextricably bound up with the building of democracy that took place in Portugal after the Carnation Revolution, the history of the Cerveira International Art Biennial goes back to 1978 as a follow-up to the Encontros Internacionais de Arte em Portugal organised by Grupo Alvarez, Egídio Álvaro and the Artes Plásticas magazine. Against a background of cultural decentralisation, the first meeting in 1974 at Casa da Carruagem, Valadares, was subsequently succeeded in the following years by Viana do Castelo (1975), Póvoa do Varzim (1976), Caldas da Rainha (1977) and the last and fifth meeting in Vila Nova de Cerveira, the birthplace of the Cerveira International Art Biennial, staged every two years in a more comprehensive layout and with foreign guests.

Forty-six years on from the first BIAC, ran by Jaime Isidoro (1924-2009), the dream of a group of artists who, inspired by the Revolution’s democratic principles, wished to decentralise and provide greater access to art and culture is still a reality in Vila Nova de Cerveira, affirming itself as Iberia’s oldest biennial on the national contemporary art map. The model features an international competition, tribute exhibitions to renowned artists, the participation of guest artists, various curatorial projects, artist residencies and parallel programmes.

Sticking to the format of the first edition, encouraging ties between artistic practice and the urban realm, as well as establishing a rapport with local residents and a diversified audience, the twenty-third edition of BIAC, headed by Helena Mendes Pereira and Mafalda Santos, poses the question: Are you free?, challenging artists, curators, collectors, thinkers and the general public to reflect on freedom. The answer to the burning question, serving as the leitmotif for the entire programme, is embodied in 160 works by 120 artists from 20 countries and is evident in the array of artistic offerings and activities featured in this year’s edition.

Keeping up with BIAC’s efforts in recent years to honour women artists – Paula Rego in 2017 and Helena Almeida in 2022 -, we draw attention to the tribute exhibition to Isabel Meyrelles (b. 1929) curated by Marlene Oliveira and Perfecto Cuadrado, in partnership with Fundação Cupertino de Miranda (Famalicão). On show at Fórum Cultural de Cerveira, the exhibition entitled Isabel Meyrelles – Ser Livre reveals the achievements of the artist, poet and translator, considered to be the first Portuguese surrealist woman, in the year that celebrates the hundredth anniversary of André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto. Isabel Meyrelles’ artistic freedom is displayed in the nearly forty works on view, alluding to the uncanny, humour, love and fiction. Bronze, terracotta and wood sculptures foster the transmutation of different representations, particularly mythological figures, parts of the human body and everyday objects, in the work of an artist for whom surrealism is primarily about freedom.

Another special tribute featured at Fórum Cultural de Cerveira is the three rooms devoted to FBAC’s Founding Members: Henrique Silva, José Rodrigues and Jaime Isidoro, whose hundredth anniversary and legacy are also being celebrated with the exhibition Jaime Isidoro: o pai das bienais, curated by Helena Mendes Pereira, on display at the Municipal Library of Vila Nova de Cerveira until August 15.

The International Competition, which has been honouring avant-garde artists and showcasing emerging artists for four decades, is a platform of opportunity for new generations. Challenged to tackle issues associated with the democratic values achieved in the Carnation Revolution of 1974, the XXIII BIAC International Competition presents five interventions and 56 works by 51 artists from 12 countries: Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, South Korea, Italy, Moldova, Nigeria, Portugal, Turkey, Germany. Asserting values of freedom and equality, the selected pieces, on display at Fórum Cultural de Cerveira, notwithstanding their diversity, reveal discursive and formal similarities that cut across borders, languages and social backgrounds. Of particular note in this regard are the chimerical images of Ana Mantezi’s Mais que rio adentro (2022), in which the inland beauty of the lower Amazon led the artist to question freedom; the two-channel installation Landscape Archive (2023) by Celata & Praun, with its images of white marble quarries leading us to ponder environmental issues and human intervention in the landscape; and the denunciation of and debate on the Portuguese housing crisis and human exploitation, depicted in Tito Senna’s tile work T1 30m2.

A novelty of this year’s International Competition is the addition of participatory and ephemeral artistic intervention proposals. Five performances will be presented during the biennial, between July and October: Eduardo Freitas’ Empregado de Mesa; Flávio Rodrigues’ Malandro sem culpa; Júlio Cerdeira’s Shadow Line; Maíra Freitas’ Na Hora do Almoço and Manuel Teles & Frederico de Leonardis’ L’elan vital.

Fórum Cultural de Cerveira also houses the Casa da Liberdade project, developed by Viarco, the Iberian Peninsula’s oldest and only pencil factory, offering a venue for free experimentation with painting and drawing materials, inviting the public to try them out.

The highlight of Galeria Bienal de Cerveira is the display of twenty-six invited artists – from different generations and countries – who have accepted the challenge of thinking about freedom in a curatorial project signed by Mafalda Santos. Combining painting, drawing, photography, video and installation, the exhibition is divided into different sections that establish connections and overlapping narratives, highlighting common themes such as the assertion of the freedom of the artistic gesture; the questioning of our history and colonial legacy; power struggles and memory; gender identification and affirmation and the poetic and political impact of words. This freedom of expression and artistic exercise can be found in compelling socio-political works such as Stiletto Dance (2024) by Tales Frey or Dome Bunker I; II (2022) by Maria Trabulo.

With cultural decentralisation being one of BIAC’s key objectives since its inception, we should emphasise its role in the process of democratising the general public’s and the territory’s access to culture, as evidenced by the cycle Residências e Intervenções Artísticas – Livre Trânsito curated by Mafalda Santos, which, spanning fifteen parishes in the municipality, provides conditions for artistic experimentation tied to the territory and the landscape, primarily aiming to promote direct contact between artists from different countries and the community. On top of this, there are free workshops, led by guest and young graduate artists from Viana do Castelo; mediation initiatives; guided tours and international conferences with guest speakers.

As always, the Cerveira Art Biennial also extends itself to Convento de San Payo, where visitors can enjoy the Cerveira Biennial exhibition that represented Portugal at the 2023 Macau International Art Biennale, entitled A Metafísica da Sorte e a Ciência do Azar, curated by Helena Mendes Pereira and Mafalda Santos, until October 27. Still as part of the Biennial’s international expansion, and related to the partnership established since 2018 between the Foundation and San Sperate – a Sardinian town with the world’s largest open-air mural painting museum -, we highlight the opening in this Minho town of Mural AgriCULTURA, by Angelo Pilloni (1945), a tribute to the peasant origins of both communities.

The twenty-third edition of the Cerveira Art Biennial celebrates freedom with a broad programme in a bid to reduce inequalities. A prime example of creativity and non-stop efforts in favour of culture and art, BIAC has established itself as a leading cultural event at both national and international levels, breaking new ground and continuing the path it set out in 1978 to provide artists with freedom. In Helena Mendes Pereira’s words, a Biennial by artists and for artists, to be visited until December 30.