Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca: Swinguerra

Exhibited in the Brazilian pavilion on the occasion of the Venice Art Biennale 2019 and crowned with great critical success, the film-installation Swinguerra by Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca is presented for the first time in Paris, at the Studio of the CRM.

As powerful as it is stimulating, the Swinguerra video marks a turning point in the international careers of Bárbara Wagner, photographer and multimedia artist, and of filmmaker Benjamin de Burca. Here they are continuing their research on the relationship between popular forms of music and dance, and issues of social identity and gender. Swinguerra addresses overarching issues such as inclusion, acceptance and, most importantly, the dignity and self-confidence of LGBTQ + communities.

Swinguerra, as its title suggests, offers a sort of battle in the form of a choreographic competition between three groups of mostly non-binary dancers. Halfway between documentary and fiction, the film interweaves choreographic performance and romantic performance. Swinguerra proudly defends an alternative vision of Brazil: young, confident and daring, which refuses to be limited by overdetermined categories of gender, ethnicity and class.

Collaborating since 2011, Bárbara Wagner (born in 1980 in Brazil) and Benjamin de Burca (born in 1975 in Germany) produce a video work on the border between fiction and documentary. Their experimental films question the cultural categorizations that they deconstruct in order to show their porosity and shifting character.

The work of Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca has benefited from numerous international exhibitions, notably at Stedelijk, Amsterdam (2019), Museo Jumex, Mexico (2019), York Art Gallery, Toronto (2018). They have also participated in major group exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale (2019), the Skulptur Projekte, Münster (2017), and the São Paulo Biennale (2016).

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