Kvadrat and the New Museum have collaborated since 2017 to support the realization of exhibitions by emerging artists. As a result of this partnership, Five Times in Brazil is the first survey exhibition of the artistic duo in the US. For the past decade, Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca have collaborated on films and video installations that feature protagonists involved in cultural production. Through voice, movement, and drama, the resulting works promote new forms of self-representation.

Five Times Brazil focuses on five projects developed over a period of socio-political turmoil in Brazil. In the first project, four dancers and their practices are examined to explore the relationship between contemporary and traditional frevo dance in northeast Brazil [Faz que vai (Set to go) 2015]. A landscape of Brega music in Recife is shown in the second project dated 2016 and called Está vendo coisas (You are seeing things). The third project focuses on gospel produced by young preachers, singers, and composers in rural Pernambuco [Terremoto Santo (Holy Tremor), 2017); Commissioned by the Brazilian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, Swinguerra (2019), displays the dance competitions in the outskirts of Recife. The firth project is the newest addition to the artworks by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca: Fala da Terra, 2022 (Voice of the Land). This piece features the practice of Coletivo Banzeiros, a theatre group composed of members of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Workers’ Movement). The organization has been fighting for for land reform and against social inequities affecting rural workers in Brazil for forty years.

Kvadrat has supported the five projects within Fives Times Brazil with 229 meters of Relate by Patricia Urquiola and 58 meters of Field 2 by Alfredo Häberli. Together, the works in the exhibition highlight the strength and complexity of artistic expression, demonstrating how culture can offer profound sources of resistance and community.

New Museum

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About New Museum

The New Museum is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the New Museum is a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists from around the world. From its beginnings as a one-room office on Hudson Street to the inauguration of its first freestanding building on the Bowery designed by SANAA in 2007, the New Museum continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.

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