The 1st Mercosur Biennial was held in 1997 and is considered by Uruguayan critic Alberto Torres as "the most solid and rigorous review of the region's art." One of the main successes of the first edition was the existence of a clearly defined curatorial project, which sought to present the largest exhibition of Latin American art ever held in Brazil. The exhibition was limited to the Mercosur countries—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay—and featured Venezuela as a guest country, but it provided an examination of the historical development of art on the continent. Approximately 800 works by 200 artists occupied twelve exhibition spaces and were grouped into three sections—"Constructive—Art and its Structures," "Political—Art and its Context," and "Cartographic—Territory and History." Two segments also featured works by young artists and a selection of works from Brazilian public and private collections. This Biennial honored two personalities: Argentine painter and linguist Xul Solar and Brazilian art critic Mário Pedrosa. Two international seminars attended by approximately 60 art critics and historians from Brazil and abroad were held during the exhibition period. The seminars discussed Latin American utopias and the perspectives of countries in the Northern Hemisphere on Latin American art. Works donated by thirteen artists were installed throughout the city, and eleven artists were invited to make ephemeral interventions. If political art from Latin America—subject to 30 years of military dictatorship—brings to light works that acquired extraordinary significance after the continent's redemocratization, the 1st Mercosur Biennial demonstrated that, beyond its political content, Latin American art is also conceptual and constructive. Source: Pensamento Crítico, by Frederico Morais. Pgs. 181 to 188.