Nos arquivos da Bienal do Mercosul: democratizar, educar, investir

Abstract

From studies by Michel Foucault, and operating with the concepts of discourse and government, this Thesis problematizes the institution of the Biennial Art Exhibition of Mercosul as an educative context par excellence, which privileges the democratization of access to art through the actions it develops in accordance with requirements of inclusive policies in effect in Brazil. In order to analyze such context, the study has addressed nine issues of publications by the Mercosul Biennial Visual Arts Foundation published from 1997 to 2013. The analyses have shown that the encouragement to attend the Biennial Art Exhibition has been grounded on the promise that being in contact with art can add value to visitors, and it has been understood that changes are produced in the subjects that move around its exhibition rooms. Such promise points out that the relationships established between art and education in the Biennial Art Exhibition of Mercosul focus on the capitalization of the subjects, particularly school age individuals. To meet such expectations and the idea of interdependence, the Biennial Art Exhibition has been constituted as a heterogenic territory consisting of both entrepreneurial and (necessary) educative biases, among others. The approximation between the Biennial Art Exhibition and corporations has been triggered by the imperative of a so-called inclusive society, the democratization of accesses, the strengthening of the State-Corporation partnership, and the entrepreneurship of subjects and society by means of an increasing investment in human capital. The insertion of the Biennial Foundation in this intelligibility framework shows the bases of its purpose of forming the (self-entrepreneur) subject by means of educative projects that reverberate in investments in the quality of living of the population. It has been concluded that, by fostering the democratization of the access to art, regarding the subject as its focus of intervention, the Biennial Art Exhibition of Mercosul has become one more institutional place that teaches and keeps the flow of normality of the population, which has been politically instituted.