Turning a Blind Eye is a public program of workshops, lectures and walks, conceived, organised and compiled by Bik Van der Pol during the 31st Sao Paulo Bienal, accompanied by a live, large scoreboard animated by activators that functions as a marker following the developments at the biennale and invites the public to become participants.

The program explores different notions of the `unseen´ - as often categorised or dismissed as non-visible or non-existent- by the ways we look at things or -rather- choose what we look at, and proposes other sensibilities to think about the world. Departing from recent events in Brazil and worldwide, the program seeks to investigate the notion of ‘publicness’ and the tensions that arise from increasing exploitation of urban and natural space. The Bienal serves as the venue for creation and research, implementing the educational model of the “school” as a form of mental theater capable of creating new horizons for action, production and reflection.

Bik Van der Pol understand artistic practice as strategy for emancipation and a potential response to public issues. The recent occupations of public squares worldwide, the increasing exploitation of private information, and the large migration movements demonstrate space as urgency, as a site of conflict over rights, information, relations and objects.