Thiago de Paula Souza appointed curator of the 8th Athens Biennale

Following the proposal of the Curatorial Committee, the Board of Trustees has appointed Thiago de Paula Souza as curator of the 8^th Athens Biennale, to take place in Spring 2027.

Thiago de Paula Souza is a curator based in São Paulo. He is interested in exhibition making and in the possibilities that the format continues to offer for fostering political imaginaries. In recent years, he has explored ideas and artistic practices that regard the notion of transmutation as a central element—whether through eroticism, gender nonconformity and modes of intimacy, as well as through the transformation of organic matter, spiritual trance. He believes these practices might contribute to rethinking more balanced forms of coexistence between humanity and other beings.

His curatorial activity includes: co-curator of the 36^th Bienal de São Paulo (2025), co-curator of the 38^th Panorama da Arte Brasileira at MAM São Paulo (2024); co-curator of Some May Work as Symbols: Art Made in Brazil, 1950s–70s, at Raven Row, London (2024); co-curator of the Nomadic Program at the Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Netherlands (2022–2023); co-curator of While we are embattled at Para Site, Hong Kong, and Atos de Revolta at MAM Rio, Brazil (2022); member of the curatorial team of the 3rd edition of Frestas – Trienal de Artes, in São Paulo, Brazil (2020–2021); curatorial advisor for the 58^th Carnegie International, United States (2021/2022); curator of Tony Cokes’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, at BAK, Utrecht (2018–2019); and a member of the curatorial team of the 10^th Berlin Biennale (2018).

He currently serves on the Artistic Committee of NESR Art Foundation in Angola. Thiago de Paula Souza is a PhD candidate in the arts program at HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His research examines artistic practices that combine refusal and collaboration as tools against neoliberal cooptation.