For the works on show at the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, Rebeca Carapiá studied the walking palm—also known as paxiúba or by its scientific name, Socratea exorrhiza. This tree, found in the Amazon River basin and Central America, has sturdy, tangled roots that are not buried but exposed above ground, moving slowly through time. They grow towards the sun in search of water and nutrients, while the roots that remain in the shade rot and die, serving as organic matter for the generation of new branches. Of significant visual power, the tree expands its branches throughout the space and encourages us to think about ancestral foundations that are dynamically transformed over time, embodying resilience and mobile foundations through intricate geometry. Characteristic forms of Carapiá’s practice include a focus on the formation and expansion of languages, in which abstract compositions are made with copper, iron, and solder. The sinuous lines of her work rehearse and perpetuate paths, wanderings, and walks, synthesizing an existence in movement. The artist presents her sculptures as a celebration of the various stages that formed them, from collective and shared production to overcoming technical challenges and socio-historical obstacles. They emphasize the ambivalent oscillation of filling space while incorporating its voids, rehearsing a lightness of movement despite the inescapable weight of the material, or even inhabiting a zone between drawing, sculpture, and installation—or between monument and filigree. Carapiá invites us to understand that there is no contradiction between being anchored to the ancestral ground and taking flight.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION:

2 sculptures from the series Como criar raízes aéreas (2025), steel, carbon, and copper, dimensions variable. Commissioned by Fundação Bienal de São Paulo for the 36th Bienal; Untitled (2026), 23 drawings, ink on paper, 59.4 × 42 cm. All courtesy of Almeida & Dale