International Visitors Programme
The Brazilian curators Ligia Nobre and Magu Bueno visited the Netherlands at the invitation of Het Nieuwe Instituut in preparation for the 10th international São Paulo architecture biennial, held in autumn 2013. They came to investigate possible collaborative relationships for the biennial and other opportunities for Dutch-Brazilian exchange. Nobre and Bueno engaged in extensive conversations with Het Nieuwe Instituut and met a number of Dutch architects. Several firms consequently staged exhibitions at the São Paulo biennial; these included Crimson Architectural Historians' The Banality of Good; West 8's Madrid Rio; MVRDV's Vertical Village and Freeland; and De Urbanisten's exhibition on Benthemplein, Rotterdam's "water square".
About Ligia Nobre
Ligia Nobre studied architecture and urbanism at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo and subsequently earned a master's degree in histories and theories of architecture from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London in 1999. Nobre cofounded exo experimental org. (2002-2007), a platform for art and urbanism research in São Paulo. She has worked as a researcher and teaching assistant for professors Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron at ETH Studio in Basel (2007-2008), as a consultant to the Brazilian ministry of culture (2009-2010), and as a guest instructor in architecture and urbanism at Mackenzie Presbyterian University (2009-2011).
About Magu Bueno
Maria Augusta Bueno earned a BA in architecture and planning from Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo in 1997 and an MS with honours in architecture and urban design from Columbia University in New York in 2000. She collaborated as a researcher and video maker on the American section of the Mutations exhibition, which was held in Tokyo and Bordeaux, France, and featured in Actar Publishers' book of the same name. She worked on urban design, housing, institutional and industrial projects in the US, Kazakhstan and Brazil as part of the architectural team at Davis Brody Bond Aedas in New York and São Paulo from 2001 until 2007. She co-founded the architecture practice Estudio Maac with Andrea Castanheira in 2008 and has worked since then as a guest teacher at Escola da Cidade in São Paulo. In 2010 she became the director of São Paulo Lab.