Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo (the Wanda Svevo Historical Archive) administrates a central element of the cultural heritage on which the São Paulo Biennial is based. The archive is the most important reference source for the biennial as institution. In connection with the 28th biennial in São Paulo a campaign was launched to collect publications from as many biennials and other periodical exhibitions as possible from all over the world. The influx of books led to an expansion and contextualization of the existing Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo. Behind this was a wish to show the public the vast range of biennials that exist in the world today. Over 200 biennials have been registered, some of which no longer exist and are therefore now only accessible through this kind of historical documentation. Other biennials are active institutions that appear in a new guise in every version, where catalogues and other publications provide valuable insight into the exhibi¬tion history of the biennials.
The archive constitutes the most comprehensive body of source material on biennials gathered together anywhere in the world. In that sense it is an invaluable resource and is being presented for the first time in Europe in connection with the conference in Bergen. The archive will be arranged in its entirety as a library, and made available to everyone interested in the course of the exhibition period.