Final performance – Xavante people of the Wederã village with Raven Chacon, Iggor Cavalera, and Laima Leyton

After four months on view, the 36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice closes its edition with a premiere performance led by the Wederã Xavante village, from the Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Territory, under the coordination of Chief Cipassé Xavante and Mara Barreto Sinhosewawe Xavante, with the participation of Raven Chacon alongside Iggor Cavalera and Laima Leyton. Created especially for the Bienal Pavilion, the action takes place from 3 pm to 5:30 pm and encapsulates one of the central axes of this edition: listening to ancestral knowledge and recognizing humanity as a collective, spiritual, and political practice.

The closing performance begins with a spiritual ritual of healing and cleansing for the city of São Paulo. In continuous movement, members of the Wederã Xavante village occupy the central void of the Pavilion with chants, dances, adornments, and traditional instruments. The action features the participation of artists Raven Chacon, Iggor Cavalera, and Laima Leyton, who join the gesture led by the Xavante people.

According to Chief Cipassé Xavante, the presentation with the Dasirene Xavante group represents the Dasiwawere, the healing ritual of the Wederã Village. “We chose to bring this dance to the Bienal because we believe the world is spiritually ill, and this is a moment of awakening. For the Xavante people, the ritual is a powerful form of healing and awareness. It is a great honor to close the 36th Bienal de São Paulo with this ceremony, alongside our friend Iggor Cavalera and our Native American relatives. This strengthens the appreciation of our culture,” he reflects.

The presence of Raven Chacon, an artist born in the Navajo Nation (Diné) and the first Indigenous North American composer to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Music, establishes a direct dialogue with the work he presents at the 36th Bienal alongside Cavalera and Leyton, Itoma’a dure itoma’a [Circles/cycles within circles/cycles] (2025), a sound composition created from recordings made in the Etenhiritipa community, organized by Chief Cipassé Xavante, with the participation of Sacred Didupu Flute players Josimar Ruruwe Xavante and Roberto Tewewari Xavante, and the singing of Xavante youth from the Sadaros group.

This convergence also resonates in the trajectory of Iggor Cavalera, whose relationship with Indigenous peoples spans decades of sound research and collaboration. Since the album Roots (1996) by Sepultura—in which Xavante chants broke with dominant heavy metal aesthetics and projected the struggles and cultures of Indigenous peoples onto the international stage—Cavalera has articulated music, territory, and spirituality as forms of resistance. The partnership with Laima Leyton, an artist and musician whose practice moves between performance, sound experimentation, and activism, further expands this field of inquiry.

After the initial rite, the performance unfolds into an open conversation with the audience, led by the Xavante community itself, addressing topics such as climate change, environmental preservation, and the fundamental role of Indigenous peoples in protecting territories and the health of the planet.

Andrea Pinheiro, President of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, notes that closing this stage of the 36th Bienal with the performance also inaugurates a new moment for the project. “The Bienal de São Paulo does not end at the Pavilion; it continues in motion. From now on, this listening and these learnings will unfold through the traveling exhibitions program, which will take the exhibition and its debates to other territories, in Brazil and around the world.”

Service
Ritual-performance by the Wederã Xavante village with Raven Chacon, Iggor Cavalera, and Laima Leyton
36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice
Jan 11, 2026
Sun, 3 pm
Central span of the Pavilion, 1st floor
Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion
Ibirapuera Park, gate 3
São Paulo, Brazil
free admission
subject to capacity