Bárbara Wagner ~ Keywords: Research, Choreography, Collaboration, Vernacular, Gesture, Allegory, Archive

Bárbara Wagner (b. 1980, Brasília) lives and works in Recife, Brazil. Her practice is informed by a background in journalism and photography, centering on the "popular body" and its strategies of visibility between the fields of pop culture and tradition. Since 2011, she has developed a collaborative filmic language with artist Benjamin de Burca (b.1975, Munich), where documentary observation is layered with musical performance and allegory.

In their films, Wagner & de Burca employ a horizontal methodology: direction, script, costume, and soundtrack are conceived in dialogue with the participants of each project. This process focuses on the tensions between vernacular cultural practices and hegemonic structures, reflecting on how the performative gesture functions as a social and political act.

An alumna of the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) (MFA, 2012), Wagner represented Brazil at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019) and has held solo exhibitions at MASP (2022), New Museum (2022), ICA Boston (2022) and at the the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2026).

Her work has been included in the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, 5th Skulptur Projekte Münster, and Manifesta 13. Her films and installations are part of public collections such as MoMA (New York), Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), The Arts Council Collection (Dublin), and MASP (São Paulo).

A monograph dedicated to the methodology of Wagner & de Burca was published in 2026 by Universidade Católica do Porto, UCP Press.

Bárbara Wagner’s written MA thesis (2011): The Photograph between Documentary and Art

Learn more about Bárbara Wagner’s DAI-publication: Once Upon A Time In The West 

Text written in 2017 by Marianna Maruyama for DAI: “Wherever I go I try to understand a critical situation, especially the social and political [aspects] where I can investigate some issues and understand how it can become an image.”

Follow Bárbara's "Life after DAI" via Instagram or watch teasers and excerpts of the films by Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca at their  Vimeo channel .