Curating Resistances focuses upon the socially interventionist and activist agendas of two contemporary art biennials in Europe during and in response to the current economic crisis. This thesis seeks to untangle their tensions, conflicts and intimate socialities as they evolve against the backdrop of neoliberalism, austerity, crisis and the rise of Occupy cultures. Drawing upon primary ethnographic research on the 3rd Athens Biennale (2011) and the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012), as well as on the examination of curatorial, journalistic and archival documents, I argue for an approach that takes into consideration the threefold nature of these sites, as institutions, organizations and events. A central area of investigation is the post-1990s curatorial idea of strategically occupying the institution from within and mobilising it as a space of radical knowledge production. This idea gave rise to a model of exhibition-making, that I call the ‘discursive exhibition’, which shapes the vocabulary and forms of curating cultures at least since documenta X (1997). I argue that this model was challenged during the European crisis through the post-2010 art activism that brought ideas related to class, labour and the commons to the centre of debates on art and politics. Through their attempts to radicalise in response to such challenges, I argue that the two biennials I examine expose the limits of biennials as sites of activism and political resistance. In employing the research perspectives of place and translocality, terms borrowed from cultural geography, I argue that rather than imposing a global art language, biennials unfold through complex socio-spatial dynamics, manifesting a remarkable capacity to absorb, remediate and repurpose their surrounding environments. By discussing how a series of failed statements, border-crossings, internal conflicts, withdrawals, police interventions and press spectacles interconnect with the biennial’s organizational and institutional dynamics, this thesis navigates through the translocal tensions played upon the materiality, infrastructures and economies of curating resistances.

A presente pesquisa analisa os processos de atualização de acervos de arte contemporânea brasileira em dez museus do país e as condições dessa prática na atual confi guração do sistema da arte. Como recurso de aprofundamento, examina mais detidamente os processos curatoriais ligados à formação do acervo do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo nos anos 1990 e 2000. A partir do diagnóstico da situação dos museus brasileiros no que se refere à incorporação da produção artística das últimas duas décadas, procura-se discutir as características do campo sociocultural da arte, os desafi os que os museus enfrentam e as implicações de sua prática colecionista sobre a constituição da memória das artes visuais recentes do país e sobre a construção da história da arte. O estudo procura contribuir para o entendimento dos processos de formação de valor e legitimação na arte contemporânea a partir do exame das dinâmicas de institucionalização da produção recente. Com esse intuito, busca articular a análise da ação preservacionista dos museus ao acionamento e visibilidade da produção contemporânea brasileira no circuito internacional de arte. / This study analyses the collection building processes focused in Brazilian contemporary art in ten Brazilian museums and the circumstances of this practice under the current art systems configuration. As a case study, it investigates the curatorial processes and collection policy of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo [São Paulo Modern Art Museum] during the 1990s and 2000s. Based on the diagnostic of the conditions of Brazilian art museums towards the acquisition of artworks produced in the last two decades, this research aims to discuss some aspects of the sociocultural art field, the challenges that art museums face today, as well as the infl uence of its collection practice on the constitution of the recent artistic heritage and on the construction of art history. This investigation seeks to contribute to the understanding of the value foundation process and its legitimacy in contemporary art, examining the institutionalization dynamics of the contemporary art production. In this sense, it articulates the analysis of the preservation policy of museums to the exposure and insertion of Brazilian production in the international art circuit.

A presente pesquisa analisa os processos de atualização de acervos de arte contemporânea brasileira em dez museus do país e as condições dessa prática na atual confi guração do sistema da arte. Como recurso de aprofundamento, examina mais detidamente os processos curatoriais ligados à formação do acervo do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo nos anos 1990 e 2000. A partir do diagnóstico da situação dos museus brasileiros no que se refere à incorporação da produção artística das últimas duas décadas, procura-se discutir as características do campo sociocultural da arte, os desafi os que os museus enfrentam e as implicações de sua prática colecionista sobre a constituição da memória das artes visuais recentes do país e sobre a construção da história da arte. O estudo procura contribuir para o entendimento dos processos de formação de valor e legitimação na arte contemporânea a partir do exame das dinâmicas de institucionalização da produção recente. Com esse intuito, busca articular a análise da ação preservacionista dos museus ao acionamento e visibilidade da produção contemporânea brasileira no circuito internacional de arte. / This study analyses the collection building processes focused in Brazilian contemporary art in ten Brazilian museums and the circumstances of this practice under the current art systems configuration. As a case study, it investigates the curatorial processes and collection policy of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo [São Paulo Modern Art Museum] during the 1990s and 2000s. Based on the diagnostic of the conditions of Brazilian art museums towards the acquisition of artworks produced in the last two decades, this research aims to discuss some aspects of the sociocultural art field, the challenges that art museums face today, as well as the infl uence of its collection practice on the constitution of the recent artistic heritage and on the construction of art history. This investigation seeks to contribute to the understanding of the value foundation process and its legitimacy in contemporary art, examining the institutionalization dynamics of the contemporary art production. In this sense, it articulates the analysis of the preservation policy of museums to the exposure and insertion of Brazilian production in the international art circuit.