Beyond the Centers: How FRESTAS Triennial Reimagined Brazil's Artistic Geography

When the inaugural FRESTAS Triennial opened its doors in the industrial city of Sorocaba in October 2014, few in the international art world took notice. Located 100 kilometers from São Paulo—Brazil's undisputed cultural capital—Sorocaba seemed an unlikely candidate to host a significant contemporary art exhibition. Yet within a decade, this "peripheral" triennial would transform into one of Latin America's most intellectually rigorous and politically engaged art platforms, challenging long-established hierarchies of cultural production and reception.

The creation of FRESTAS represented a radical experiment in cultural decentralization. In a country where artistic resources and visibility have historically been concentrated in the megalopolises of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the decision to establish a major recurring exhibition in Sorocaba was both pragmatic and revolutionary. "We didn't want to be just another event in the already saturated São Paulo calendar," explained Daniela Labra, who curated the first two editions. "In Sorocaba, we could build something with its own identity, in dialogue with different communities and realities."

This desire to forge an independent path was encoded in the triennial's very name. In Portuguese, "frestas" means cracks, fissures, or gaps—those overlooked spaces where light enters and new possibilities emerge. It was a fitting metaphor for an exhibition that sought to illuminate blind spots in Brazil's cultural landscape while creating opportunities for artistic practices marginalized by mainstream institutions.

Central to this vision was SESC, the Social Service of Commerce, a non-profit private institution with a unique position in Brazil's cultural ecosystem. Founded in 1946 as a welfare organization for commercial workers, SESC evolved into one of the country's most important cultural producers, operating a network of centers that provide affordable access to arts, sports, and education. SESC Sorocaba, which opened in 2012, became the physical and institutional home for FRESTAS, providing both world-class facilities and a philosophical commitment to democratizing culture.

"SESC doesn't simply fund exhibitions—it has a mission to transform society through culture," notes cultural researcher Clarissa Diniz. "This gives FRESTAS a different starting point from commercial biennials that must satisfy market interests or tourism agendas. There's a genuine commitment to social impact." This founding ethos allowed FRESTAS to develop an artistic program that prioritized critical engagement over spectacle, community connection over visitor numbers, and intellectual depth over Instagram-friendly installations.

The inaugural edition in 2014, titled "What Would Be of the World Without Things That Don't Exist?" set the tone. Featuring 60 artists from Brazil and abroad, the exhibition explored notions of utopia, fiction, and imagination as tools for social transformation. Amid a period of intense political turbulence in Brazil—with massive street protests and the looming impeachment crisis—the first FRESTAS positioned art as a space for reimagining collective futures.

By its second edition in 2017, "Between Post-Truths and Events," FRESTAS had sharpened its political edge. Opening just a year after the controversial impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, the exhibition directly confronted questions of truth, propaganda, and the manipulation of public discourse. Works like "Apagamento" (Erasure) by Clara Ianni, which documented the systematic removal of leftist history from Brazilian textbooks, exemplified how FRESTAS embraced art that other institutions might consider too politically charged.

The triennial's curatorial approach evolved significantly with its third edition in 2020-2021, "The River is a Serpent." For the first time, a collective curatorial team—Beatriz Lemos, Diane Lima, and Thiago de Paula Souza—led the exhibition, embodying a commitment to collaborative knowledge production. The third edition marked a decisive turn toward decolonial perspectives, centering indigenous, Afro-Brazilian, and other marginalized knowledge systems.

"We wanted to challenge the colonial model of the exhibition as a space for visual consumption," explained Lima. "Instead, we conceived FRESTAS as a territory for collective learning, where artistic practices could activate ancestral knowledge and envision more just futures." This approach transformed not just what was displayed but how it was presented, with conventional object-based exhibitions supplemented by rituals, gatherings, pedagogical initiatives, and community collaborations.

The triennial's development coincided with broader shifts in Brazil's artistic landscape. As the country's established biennials in São Paulo and Mercosul faced funding challenges and political pressures, FRESTAS benefited from SESC's stable institutional backing and relative autonomy. This allowed the triennial to maintain its critical stance even during periods of intense cultural warfare under the Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022), when many arts organizations self-censored to avoid government retaliation.

Perhaps most significantly, FRESTAS has catalyzed a new ecosystem of art events beyond Brazil's major cities. Smaller triennials and biennials have emerged in locations like Ribeirão Preto, Belo Horizonte, and Bahia, each developing distinctive approaches rooted in local contexts while engaging with global art discourse. This proliferation represents a profound decentralization of Brazilian cultural production, challenging the longstanding dominance of the Rio-São Paulo axis.

As FRESTAS prepares for its fourth edition in 2025, "Echoes of Resistance: Art in Times of Transition," the triennial faces new challenges. Brazil's political landscape has shifted again with the return of a progressive government, while the art world contends with post-pandemic recalibrations and economic uncertainties. The appointment of Keyna Eleison and Vivian Caccuri as co-curators signals continued commitment to multiple perspectives, with Eleison bringing institutional experience as artistic director of Rio's Museum of Modern Art (MAM) and Caccuri contributing her background as an artist working across sound, installation, and social practice.

What began as an experimental outpost has matured into a defining voice in contemporary Brazilian art—one that speaks from the "frestas" or cracks in established systems, illuminating paths toward more inclusive, democratic, and socially engaged cultural futures. In doing so, FRESTAS has not just added another event to Brazil's art calendar but fundamentally reimagined what an art triennial can be and where it can happen.