The Exhibition Programme
Various artists · Programme since 2001
What you see in the galleries depends entirely on when you come. The CCBB has no collection of its own; it borrows, commissions and tours, and the exhibitions change every two or three months. Over the years the São Paulo building has shown Escher, Picasso, Dalí, Kandinsky, Egyptian mummies, Japanese woodblock prints, Brazilian modernists like Tarsila do Amaral and Portinari, fashion, comics and video art. Some shows are organised by the CCBB itself and travel between its four buildings; others come from European and American museums and would otherwise never reach Brazil.
The building shapes every show. Curators have to work with the atrium, the balconies and the small upper rooms, and the best exhibitions turn this to advantage, hanging works so that you see them across the well or setting a single large piece under the skylight. The photograph here shows one such moment, an Escher exhibition that filled the space with impossible staircases and tessellated patterns and drew record crowds when it toured the CCBB buildings. Free entry means that the audience is the whole city, families and school groups alongside collectors, and queues on Sunday afternoons can wrap around the block.
The programme is funded through Brazil's cultural incentive law and through the bank, which is why almost everything is free. Alongside the main show there is usually a smaller exhibition on the upper floors and a programme of talks, workshops and guided visits run by the education team. Check the website before you come, book a time slot if the show is a popular one, and allow a couple of hours. Then, whatever is on the walls, spend a few minutes with the building.
Did You Know? An Escher exhibition that toured the CCBB buildings in 2011 topped the world ranking of most visited exhibitions that year, an unheard of result for a free show in Brazil.
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