JANAINA WAGNER
MAIN EXHIBITIONS
[upcoming]
I am molten matter sliding from the core of Earth to tell you interior things - Galeria Sardenberg (São Paulo, BR)
Quando o segundo sol chegar / um cometa nos teus olhos - Planetário do Ibirapuera (São Paulo, BR)
Quebrante - OCA - 14th Bienal de Arquitetura de São Paulo (São Paulo, BR)
Curupira e a máquina do destino - COP 30 - Museu do Amanhã (Rio de Janeiro, BR)
Manos Negativas, manos kefzeadas, Quando o segundo sol chegar / um cometa nos teus olhos, Quebrante, Curupira e a máquina do destino - Le Fresnoy-studio national des arts contemporains (Turcoing, FR)
SOLO
2025 Sala de Vídeo Janaina Wagner – Museu de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo, BR)
A comet in your eyes – Sursock Museum (Beirut, LB)
2024 Quando o segundo sol chegar (Cometa) – Centro Cultural do Cariri (Crato, BR)
2023 Cinema Caverna – Lanterna Mágica – Projeto Vênus (São Paulo, BR)
Baleia Fantasma – Pivô (São Paulo, BR)
2015 Decupagem/ Crônica de um final anunciado - Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto (Ribeirão Preto, BR)
GROUP
2025 At the End of a World - Färgfabriken Konsthall (Stockholm, SE)
2024 Era uma vez: história do céu e da terra – Pinacoteca de São Paulo (São Paulo, BR)
Ensaios de Uma Coleção – Galeria Municipal do Porto (Porto, PT)
Summertime – SUPERCOLLIDER - Brand Library (Los Angeles, USA)
Imaginar futuros com gestos silenciosos – Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo (Montevideo, UY)
2023 22ª Bienal SESC Videobrasil - SESC 24 de Maio (São Paulo, BR)
2022 Ópera Citoplasmática – Museu Oscar Niemeyer (Curitiba, BR)
Aliens are temporary - Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien (Berlin, DE)
2021 Thinking beyond: moving-images for a post-pandemic world – Manifattura Tabacchi (Florence, IT)
Cuando no hay sombra es mediodía - Nube Gallery (Santa Cruz, BO)
A natural history of ruins - Pivô (São Paulo, BR)
2020 Casa Carioca – MAR Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, BR)
2019 Panorama 21 - Les revenants - Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains (Turcoing, FR)
2018 Festival Mondes Possibles - Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers (Paris, FR)
(São Paulo, BR)
Ensaio de Tração - Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo, BR)
2016 Permanências e destruições - Torre H (Rio de Janeiro, BR)
Bolsa Pampulha - Museu de Arte da Pampulha (Belo Horizonte, BR)
2015 Hipótese e horizonte - Observatório - (São Paulo, BR)
2014 4º Prêmio EDP nas Artes – Instituto Tomie Ohtake (São Paulo, BR)
Estado de Suspensão – Coletor (São Paulo, BR)
DECUPAGEM/ CRÔNICA DE UM FINAL ANUNCIADO
MUSEU DE ARTE DE RIBEIRÃO PRETO (RIBEIRÃO PRETO, BR)
The structure of a window on the floor, leaning against the wall and sealed with lead sheets, naturally does not allow any light to enter. However, when faced with what is formed in these blocked openings, it is inevitable to imagine landscapes. We sketch in our minds what they have witnessed and, above all, the future that they possibly hold on the other side. In the absence that a world without cracks encloses, we are allowed to see and predict whatever we want.
As we witness scenarios today that are deepening into ecological collapse and social exhaustion, we are surrounded, in a slow and distressing process, by the darkening of the future. Under the weight of this crippled perspective, it is irresistible to think about the beginning. It is then possible to contemplate the view of a place millions of years ago... The equivalent of an Eden, untouched by human hands and whose wild beauty matters to us only in its potential [for use].
To see this prehistoric image is to perceive a nature that is intimidating in its grandeur, but above all, fertile ground for the dawn of humanity. Here is our beginning: the first man raises his arm. How did we begin to exercise ourselves in misfortune?
This window that travels through anachronistic passages soon brings us face to face with the emergence of groups of people. Those who fly over the era when we primitively dominated nature—under rocks and sticks, around campfires erected on more or less settled land—could not yet imagine our sharp capacity to one day produce a series of tragedies. Likewise, no one would have predicted that one or another megalith would become a row of colossal buildings.
We show no signs of retreat; on the contrary, we eagerly accelerate toward exhaustion. And given our terribly excessive appreciation for controlling the processes that erect, demolish, and rebuild, how appalled we are when we realize that even an infinity of concrete and iron towers, all properly grounded thanks to the power of trucks and excavators, can be—fortuitously, it is often said—torn down and swallowed up as easily as the winds could wipe out our inaugural architectural adventures.
A metaphor for real life: if the Earth gave it to us, it can take it all back whenever it wants.
Germano Dushá, 2015