The 4th Mercosur Biennial featured Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Mexico as guest countries. The event also featured a transnational exhibition featuring artists from various countries, including Germany, Cuba, and the United States. A total of 84 artists from 16 countries participated in the 4th Biennial, which was characterized as the edition with the largest participation of non-Latin American artists. Aiming to promote questioning of the specificities of Latin American art as an alternative to hegemonic centers, the 4th edition structured kinship relationships between the archaeological and the contemporary, highlighting the links between the origins and current conditions of Latin American cultures. This edition also promoted the inclusion of the Mercosur Biennial project on the agenda of political discussions in Mercosur, establishing it as the largest event for Latin American visual art and solidifying the city of Porto Alegre as an international center for dissemination and cultural and civic encounters. For this reason, and for the first time, a President of the Republic was present at the event's opening, along with presidents and representatives from other participating countries, making it a major national and international event. In total, the 4th Biennial featured 17 exhibitions spanning both contemporary and historical segments. Under the theme of Contemporary Archaeology, the curators organized seven iconic exhibitions by a renowned artist from each country to accompany the national representatives: Antonio Berni from Argentina; Pierre Verger from France, with photographs of Bolivian peoples; Roberto Matta from Chile; Livio Abramo from Paraguay; María Freire from Uruguay; and José Clemente Orozco from Mexico. Three exhibitions complemented the edition's curation: The Delirium of Chimborazo; Archaeology of the Highlands and Lowlands; and Genetic Archaeology. Brazilian artist Saint Clair Cemin was honored. The historical exhibition "Archaeology of the Highlands and Lowlands," which showcased pre-Columbian art, sought to question the artificial division between Highlands and Lowlands that has characterized South American archaeology since the Second World War. It featured approximately 120 works by some of the oldest peoples of the Americas, representing extinct cultures such as the Chavin, Moche, and Nazca, originating from what is now Peru, or the Tiahuanaco culture of Bolivia. The cross-sectional exhibition "The Delirium of Chimborazo" brought together artists from Latin America, the United States, and Europe who produced unique works inspired by the journey taken by Simón Bolívar, based on his poem "My Delirium about Chimborazo." National representations of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay were displayed at the Port Wharf. Representations from Bolivia and Paraguay were displayed at the Gasômetro Plant. This was the first Mercosur Biennial in which the countries' productions were exhibited according to geographic boundaries. The 4th Mercosur Visual Arts Biennial excelled in its efforts to integrate the community, with an emphasis on preparing mediators and supervisors for broad artistic dissemination. With free admission, the 4th Mercosur Biennial also reached a record audience of over one million visitors across its various exhibition spaces. As in previous editions, some of the Biennial's exhibitions toured other capitals. With a view to a more effective cultural integration policy, the Foundation promoted the touring exhibition in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Source: "A Concise History of the Mercosur Biennial"