Afterall is a Research Centre of University of the Arts London, located at Central Saint Martins. The Afterall curators and practitioners Pablo LaFuente and Charles Esche were asked to form the curatorial team for the 31st São Paulo Bienal in 2014. With both Esche and LaFuente on-board, the 2014 Bienal was resolutely contemporary, embracing openness, participation and complexity – an entirely appropriate early chapter for this story of creative exchange and it undoubtedly raised the profile of Central Saint Martins in Brazil.
In 2018, Afterall deepens its links with Sao Paulo through the British Council UK Exchange Programme for museums, cultural institutions and creative universities, by building a new connection with the Museum of Art São Paulo (MASP). Mark Lewis, Afterall’s co-director and MASP’s André Mesquita head up the exchange focused on three priority areas:
- Academic Development at MASP in curatorial education
- How MASP can become Afterall’s southern hemisphere partner to expand its expertise and disseminate ideas and research
- Jointly generated research, via seminars and dual publications on the condition of art and its spectatorship, Southern Art and decolonisation of museums.