Artist: Pedro Wirz
Dates of residency: January to June 2014
Born: 12/15/1981
Hometown: São Paulo – BR
Lives and works: Basel – CH and São Paulo – BR
URL: www.pedrowirz.com
Education: Bachelor’s degree at FHNW Basel – CH Institute of Arts – Class of Jürg Stäuble, Dr. Roman Kurzmeyer and Muda Mathis. Erasmus at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart – D. Institute of Arts – Class of Birgit Brenner and Class of Christian Jankowski. Bachelors’ degree at University of Taubaté – BR Institut of Communication – Public Relations
BIO/ STATEMENT:
The whole is more than the sum of its parts has never been more true when it comes to describe Pedro Wirz’s practice. Mixed-media Swiss-Brasilian artist currently based in Basel and São Paulo has an unconditional love for collaboration. And this means a natural talent to unearth people’s hidden skills and exploit them (shall I say cultivate them) for the best. A collaborative practice that implies trust when authorship becomes blurred by layers of experimentation. For each new project, this trust seems to be organically performed with all the numerous artists, curators, writers and designers the artist has been involving in his projects, becoming an integral part of the work. The similitude with relational aesthetics ‘a la Bourriaud’ can stop here, as Wirz puts a great emphasis on offering a self reflexive comment on the art world, by openly exploiting its networks while exploring its different roles. Using the accumulation of collaborations as a way of blurring authorship, Wirz tends to emphasise the impossibility of an autonomous art, an absurd yet current speculation that he tested to its full scale during his last projects (…). – Elise Lammer
Pedro Wirz has shown his work in exhibitions around the world including at the Kunsthalle Basel (2011), Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2013), Dortmunder Kunstverein (2013), Post Studio Tales, Berlin (2012) Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2013), Galerie Mendes&Wood, São Paulo (2013) and Centro Cultural São Paulo (2013). He was a resident at Cité international des Arts, Paris in 2012 and he won the Peter-Hans-Hofschneider Prize (Stuttgart, 2012) , as well as the “Werkbeitrag der Stadt Basel” Basel – CH and (2012) and recived the Patronage for Young Artists – kunsthalle Basel (2010).
SUPPORT: Pedro Wirz’s three months residency (July-September 2013) is made possible with support from iaab, the International Exchange and Studio Program Basel. The residency program is generously financed by private and public sponsors.
