Sacred Territories: How Candomblé Transformed the Bahia Biennale

In the predawn hours of a May morning in 2017, a small group gathered at the Solar do Unhão complex overlooking the Bay of All Saints in Salvador, Brazil. They weren't the typical art world insiders rushing to preview an exhibition before the crowds arrived. Instead, led by Mãe Stella de Oxóssi, a revered Candomblé priestess and spiritual leader, they came to perform a ritual blessing for the Bahia Biennale's third edition, titled "Sacred Territories." The ceremony, involving offerings to the orixás (divine forces in Afro-Brazilian religions) and invocations in Yoruba, wasn't merely ceremonial window dressing—it was fundamental to the exhibition's conceptual framework and a pivotal moment in the evolution of a biennial that has redefined the relationship between spirituality and contemporary art in Brazil.

The story of how Afro-Brazilian religious practices came to be centrally positioned in an international contemporary art exhibition illuminates the unique cultural politics of Bahia and challenges conventional understandings of the relationship between traditional spiritual practices and contemporary art. In a global biennial ecosystem often criticized for homogenized internationalism, the Bahia Biennale has carved out a distinctive identity by embracing rather than erasing its local spiritual context—particularly the rich traditions of Candomblé, a syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion that has sustained Black identity and resistance through centuries of oppression.

"We're not simply presenting art about Candomblé—we're acknowledging that Candomblé itself is a sophisticated aesthetic, philosophical, and knowledge system that has much to teach contemporary art," explained Diane Lima, curator of the 2017 edition, in a recent interview. "The biennale didn't appropriate these practices. Instead, it created a platform where practitioners themselves could lead conversations about how their traditions inform contemporary creative expression."

This approach marked a decisive break from Brazil's complex history with Afro-Brazilian religions. For centuries, Candomblé was criminalized and persecuted, with practitioners forced to hide their rituals or disguise their orixás as Catholic saints. Even as Brazil embraced aspects of African cultural heritage as components of national identity in the 20th century, religious practices were often exoticized, commodified, or relegated to folkloric status rather than recognized as living knowledge systems.

The Bahia Biennale's embrace of Candomblé as a conceptual framework rather than exotic subject matter reflects broader shifts in how contemporary art engages with indigenous and non-Western knowledge systems. What made the "Sacred Territories" edition particularly groundbreaking was its collaborative methodology. Rather than merely inviting artists to respond to spiritual themes, the curatorial team worked with terreiros (Candomblé religious communities) as active partners in programming and conceptual development.

The resulting exhibition transformed the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia and spilled into the historic Pelourinho district with installations, performances, and interventions that blurred distinctions between ritual and art. Brazilian artist Ayrson Heráclito presented "Sacudimento," a purification ritual performed at the Mercado Modelo, the former slave market, using elements of Candomblé cleansing ceremonies to address historical trauma. Sonia Gomes created textile sculptures incorporating materials donated by terreiros, while American artist Theaster Gates collaborated with Bahian sacred drummers on a sound installation exploring the rhythmic foundations common to Candomblé and Black American musical traditions.

Perhaps most significantly, the exhibition included contributions from Candomblé practitioners not typically classified as "artists" in Western terms. Makota Valdina, a respected knowledge keeper, presented an installation of sacred plants and their medicinal and spiritual uses. Pai Rychelmy created an environment inspired by the peji (sacred altar space) that visitors could experience without violating religious prohibitions against photographing or replicating actual sacred spaces.

The critical and public response revealed how the exhibition challenged conventional art world paradigms. Some international critics initially struggled to evaluate works emerging from unfamiliar spiritual contexts, while others praised the biennale for expanding the very definition of contemporary art practice. For local audiences, particularly Salvador's Black majority, the exhibition represented unprecedented recognition of knowledge systems long marginalized by cultural institutions.

"What happens when a biennial takes seriously the proposition that contemporary art might learn from rather than simply represent spiritual traditions?" wrote critic Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung in Artforum. "The Bahia Biennale suggests that we might begin to decolonize not just what art looks like, but the fundamental epistemologies that determine what counts as contemporary artistic practice."

The approach pioneered in the "Sacred Territories" edition has continued to influence subsequent iterations of the Bahia Biennale and rippled through the global biennial ecosystem. The upcoming 6th edition in 2026, "Aquilombamento: Territories of Freedom and Creation," builds on this foundation to explore contemporary resonances of quilombos—communities formed by escaped enslaved people that created autonomous zones of Black freedom and cultural preservation during the colonial period.

As preparations for the 2026 edition continue, the Bahia Biennale stands as a powerful example of how contemporary art exhibitions can engage with spiritual traditions not as exotic curiosities but as sophisticated knowledge systems with profound relevance to our contemporary moment. In a global art world still dominated by Western paradigms despite nominal commitments to pluralism, the Bahia Biennale demonstrates that meaningful engagement with non-Western spiritual traditions requires more than thematic inclusion—it demands a fundamental reconsideration of what constitutes artistic practice and who gets to define it.