Who keeps always has something to reveal

Resumen

In  September  1951,  the  Brazilian  press  reported  the  opening  of the  First  São  Paulo   Biennial.  Several  newspapers  extolled  the magnitude  of  the  event  and  its  importance   for  the  diffusion  of knowledge.  Others,  on  the  other  hand,  questioned  the  validity  of  the  initiative,  the  selection  and  the  award  of  the  works.  Some publications,  sensitive  to   the  existing  conflicts  between  figuration and  abstraction,  presented  satires  indicating of  the  incomprehension of  the  contents  exposed  in  the  arts  section.  A  certain  difficulty   of understanding  also  permeated  the  reading  of  the  projects  shown  at the   International  Architecture  Exhibition,  especially  in  newspapers and  magazines  of  large circulation.  Taking  into  account  the  critical fortune  on  the  exhibits  and,  more   particularly,  the  documentation gathered  in  the  Wanda  Svevo  Historical  Archive  of  the   São  Paulo Biennial  Foundation,  this  article  intends  to  state  the  difficulty  of acceptance   of  the  unknown.  In  order  to  do  so,  it  presents  a brief contextualization  of  the  Biennials,   their  results  and  controversies, highlighting,  besides  the  reception of  the  works,  in  the   sense proposed  by  Hans  Robert  Jauss,  the  interests  of  the  agents responsible  for  the   construction  of  an  official  representation of  the facts,  such  as  proposes  Roger  Chartier