Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca to Represent Brazil at 2019 Venice Biennale

The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, together with Brazil's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has selected Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro as curator of the Brazilian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, running from May 11 to November 24, 2019. Pérez-Barreiro, who previously curated the 33rd São Paulo Biennial, has chosen artist duo Bárbara Wagner (born 1980 in Brasília) and Benjamin de Burca (born 1975 in Munich) to represent Brazil. They will create a commissioned film that ties into the Biennale's theme, "May You Live in Interesting Times," which alludes to contemporary uncertainty, crisis, and disorder. Their work engages with Brazil's complex and often conflicting reality. Pérez-Barreiro stated that Wagner and de Burca bring a critical yet comprehensive vision of the immense plurality of the current historical moment, showing how popular culture absorbs and interprets images and phenomena from daily life and mass media. The artists have lived in Recife and worked as a duo since 2011, focusing on aspects of Brazilian popular culture, particularly from the state of Pernambuco. Their research spans themes from evangelical religion to rap and brega music, seen as manifestations of the country's cultural diversity. They avoid simplistic dichotomies and relativize boundaries between erudite and popular culture, as well as artistic and journalistic languages.