Portas Vilaseca celebrates Nádia Taquary’s participation in the 36th São Paulo Biennial, one of the most important contemporary art exhibitions in the world, on view from 6 September 2025 – 11 January 2026 at the Cicillo Matarazzo Pavilion in Ibirapuera Park.

In her research and practice, the Brazilian artist investigates the rich cultural currents of pre-colonial Africa, invoking the centrality of Black femininity as a guiding principle in her work. Her sculptures and installations function as channels of ancestral wisdom, imbued with vibrant colours and symbolic motifs drawn from African cosmologies.

In the installation Ìrókó: A árvore cósmica [Ìrókó: The Cosmic Tree] (2025), specially created for the biennial, the artist deepens her relationship with materials and with bronze forging. Using fiberglass, bronze sculptures representing the Ìyámis (female ancestral entities), and strings of beads in the colors of the deity Ìrókó, the work evokes ancestral knowledge through the cycle of life. Ìrókó, the orisha lord of time and ancestrality, came to be worshipped in Brazil by means of the gameleira, a tree found in the yards (or terreiros) of religions of African origin, signaled by a white flag. Ìrókó is the antidote to evil, the calm after the storm, and the inevitability of life. It was the first tree to be planted and, according to tradition, it was through it that the orishas descended to Earth, and upon which the Ìyámis sorceresses landed (see gallery below).

Inspired by the work of Conceição Evaristo and guided by the concept Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice, this year’s Biennial is curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, with a team that includes Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz, Thiago de Paula Souza, and Keyna Eleison.

More information: 36.bienal.org.br

Info

36th São Paulo Biennial
6 September 2025 – 11 January 2026
Fundação Bienal
Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, s/n, Ibirapuera Park, Gate 3, São Paulo
Free admission | Suitable for all ages