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JANAINA WAGNER



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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)


Green Flesh, Green Flash: Vaca Frankenstein [Green Flesh, Green Flash, Frankenstein Cow] (2022), a character featured in other vídeos shown here. Created using three-dimensional modeling software, Frankenstein Cow is based on Nelore cattle, the species most often bred by livestock farmers invading the Amazon. In the video, the cow heads toward a citrus-green sun in a red landscape, evoking a continuous sunset or slash-and-burn practice.
Curupira e a máquina do destino [Curupira and the Machine of Destiny] (2021) correlates the Curupira, a mythological being, with ways of preserving nature and subverting diferente forms of oppression. Curupira e a máquina do destino is an imagined sequel of the film Iracema: uma Transa Amazônica (1974), by Jorge Bodanzky and Orlando Senna.
Quebrante (2024) is an experimental documentary honoring the teacher Dona Erismar, known as “the cave woman,” for discovering several caves in the Amazon. Quebrante is loosely based on Robert Smithson’s The Truly Underground Cinema (1971) and Maya Deren’s The Very Eye of the Night (1958).
Quando o segundo Sol chegar / Um cometa nos teus olhos [When the Second Sun Arrives / A Comet in Your Eyes] (2025) is an unreleased video-installation in two channels with scenes of the Transamazônica under a fleeting glow that suggests a “second Sun” approaching Earth. The images are set against a text that tells a physical and existential journey, countering cosmic time with everyday life along the highway. Quando o segundo sol chegar / Um cometa nos teus olhos is loosely based on Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red (2021), Marguerite Duras’s The Ravishing of Lol Stein (1964), and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970).

TRANSAMAZÔNICA TRILOGY
SALA DE VÍDEO MASP
MUSEU DE ARTE DE SÃO PAULO (BR), 2025

Inside the Video Room, MASP shows a trilogy of films made on the Rodovia Transamazônica [Transamazon Highway] in 2021–2025: Curupira and the Machine of Destiny (2021), Quebrante (2024) and video-installation When the Second Sun Arrives / A Comet in Your Eyes (2025). Outside the Video Room, we exhibit Green Flesh, Green Flash: Frankenstein Cow (2022). Known as BR-230, the project for the Transamazônica was implemented during Brazil’s civil-military dictatorship (1964–1985) aiming to integrate the Amazon with the Other parts of the country. Inaugurated when it was still incomplete in 1972, the project has undergone few changes since then, and it has caused a significant set of social and environmental imbalances. In addressing this territory, Wagner discusses the contradictions and consequences of developmental projects.The videos intertwine the real and the imaginary, producing a collage of fragments from several narratives.

Video Room: Janaina Wagner is curated by Leandro Muniz, Assistant Curator, MASP.

JANAINA WAGNER ©2025