Graffiti Activists Target São Paulo Biennial

From ArtInfo

SÃO PAULO—Officials at the São Paulo Biennial have stepped up security measures and added metal detectors after a group of graffiti activists vandalized an exhibition, reports Artforum via O Globo. The activists targeted the walls of the empty first floor of the Ciccillo Matarazzo pavilion in Ibirapuera Park, where no artworks were on display, and wrote slogans such as "the empty biennial," "under dictatorship," and "this is art."

The responsible group, known as the “Pichadores,” are renowned in São Paulo for attacking cultural institutions including the academy of fine arts and for leaving their tags across the city. The 40 vandals involved struggled with the guards on duty, but most of them escaped, some by breaking a window in the pavilion. Only two were arrested.