Lisette Lagnado
Lisette Lagnado (born Zizette Lagnado, 1961 in Kinshasa) is a researcher, art critic, and independent curator. She holds a degree in Journalism from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica of São Paulo (PUC-SP, 1982), a master in Communication and Semiotics from the same institution (1997) and a PhD in Philosophy, from the Faculty of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences of Universidade de São Paulo (USP, 2003). She was a Professor at Faculdade Santa Marcelina (2007-2012), where she co-coordinated the Post-Graduation in Curatorial Practices and Cultural Management, together with Prof. Dr. Mirtes Cristina Marins de Oliveira.
Lagnado was one of the curators of the 11th Berlin Biennale, 2019-2020: https://11.berlinbiennale.de/, and chief curator of the 27th Bienal de São Paulo "How to Live Together" (2006).
She curated "Drifts and Derivations: Experiences, journeys and morphologies" together with María Berríos (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2010). Recent projects of her include Rivane Neuenschwander: The Name of Fear | Rio de Janeiro (Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Rio de Janeiro, 2017) and León Ferrari, "For a World with No Hell" (Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo and New York, 2018).
In 2014 Lagnado became director and Curator of Public Programs of the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro, a position held until 2017. She was coeditor of the magazines Arte em São Paulo (1981–89) and Trópico (2001–11) and contributed to exhibition catalogues on Arthur Bispo do Rosario, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Laura Lima, Gordon Matta-Clark, Virginia de Medeiros, Cildo Meireles, Ahlam Shibli, Tunga, and Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, among others.
In 1993, together with friends and family of the artist José Leonilson, she established the São Paulo-based Projeto Leonilson, which oversees his estate; she also curated his first retrospective Leonilson: são tantas as verdades (Galeria de Arte do SESI, São Paulo, 1995). Lagnado coordinated the Programa Hélio Oiticica, an online archive of Hélio Oiticica’s writings (Instituto Itaú Cultural, 1999–2002). Besides experience in establishing artists archives and the editorial area, she is working on the following themes: Hélio Oiticica and Latin-American Conceptualism, Histories of Exhibitions, Politics and Pedagogy in Curating and Public Space.
Lagnado is currently a member of the Associação Cultural Videobrasil, São Paulo. In summer 2021, she has undertaken a research on De-Colonization and Museums (Goethe Institut, Rio de Janeiro) and was lecturing at the University of Arts of Bremen.