The 8th Mercosul Biennial took place from September 10 to November 15, 2011, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Titled "Essays on Geopoetics," the 8th edition of the Biennial addressed territoriality and its critical redefinition from an artistic perspective. It brought together 186 works by 105 artists from 31 countries who develop relevant work that discusses notions of country, nation, identity, territory, mapping, and borders from geographic, political, and cultural perspectives. All events offered by the Biennial are fully open to the public. Over 600,000 people visited the exhibitions and participated in the proposed activities. Of these, almost 130,000 were students and teachers, who benefited from the Pedagogical Project's teacher and mediator training activities, workshops, public discussions, seminars, publications, and, especially, the Casa M program. Guided tours, free transportation to public schools, and a variety of activities were offered to visitors during the exhibition period. The curatorial project consisted of seven major initiatives, addressed through exhibition and activation strategies: Casa M, Travel Notebooks, Continents, Beyond Borders, Unseen City, Geopoetics, and an exhibition by the honored artist Eugenio Dittborn. The exhibition spaces that hosted the Biennial's exhibitions in Porto Alegre were the Armazéns do Cais do Porto, Santander Cultural, MARGS - Rio Grande do Sul Art Museum, and various venues in the capital and other cities in Rio Grande do Sul. Artists, works, exhibitions, and educational activities from the 8th Mercosul Biennial also visited more than twenty cities in Rio Grande do Sul, including Bagé, Caxias do Sul, Ijuí, Montenegro, Pelotas, Santa Maria, Santana do Livramento, São Miguel das Missões, and Teutônia. The curatorial team consisted of seven Latin American professionals: José Roca (Colombia) - general curator; Pablo Helguera (Mexico) - pedagogical curator; Alexia Tala (Chile), Cauê Alves (Brazil), and Paola Santoscoy (Mexico) - associate curators; Aracy Amaral - guest curator; and Fernanda Albuquerque (Brazil) - assistant curator. Exhibitions and activities: Honored artist: Eugenio Dittborn - exhibition of Aeropostal Paintings by the Chilean artist, a reference in Latin America. On display in Porto Alegre at Santander Cultural, with tours in three cities in Rio Grande do Sul: Caxias do Sul, Bagé, and Pelotas. Travel Notebooks - artist expeditions to nine regions of Rio Grande do Sul between April, May, June, July, and August. The results are being displayed in solo exhibitions at cultural institutions in several cities in Rio Grande do Sul and, during the Biennial, in a group exhibition at Warehouse A7 at Cais do Porto, in Porto Alegre. Casa M – a space dedicated to the promotion, development, and exchange of art, located in downtown Porto Alegre, and featuring an intense cultural program. Open since May. Cidade Não Vista – artworks in nine locations in downtown Porto Alegre, highlighting these places and prioritizing experience and the sensory. Continentes – seven independent international spaces holding activities in the form of artistic residencies in three independent spaces in Rio Grande do Sul, in the cities of Porto Alegre, Caxias do Sul, and Santa Maria. This project aims to exchange experiences and form networks. Geopoéticas – an exhibition at Warehouses A4, A5, and A6 at Cais do Porto, in Porto Alegre, featuring works and artists that challenge the notion of nationality. It will showcase various ways of measuring and representing the world. Some micronations—small nations with or without territory—will also be part of this exhibition as zones of poetic autonomy—ZAPs. Beyond Borders—a critical vision of the landscape of Rio Grande do Sul, presented through new works by nine artists and pieces from the collections of state museums. It will be on display at MARGS—Museum of Art of Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre.