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Vik Muniz

(1961- São Paulo) lives and works between Rio de Janeiro and New York.

Vik Muniz's work questions and challenges the limits of representation. Appropriating raw materials such as cotton, sugar, chocolate, and even garbage, the artist meticulously composes landscapes, portraits, and iconic images taken from the history of art and the imagery of Western visual culture, proposing new meanings for these materials and for the representations created. "His work harbors a kind of method that asks the public for a retrospective look at the work. To 'read' one of his photos, it is necessary to investigate the process of making, the materials used, to identify the image, so that we can, finally, approach its meaning. The work puts a series of questions into play for the gaze, and it is in this zone of doubt that we construct our understanding" (Luisa Duarte).

Muniz also stands out for the social projects he coordinates, using art and creativity as factors of transformation in needy Brazilian communities and also creating works that seek to give visibility to marginalized groups in society.

At Rosewood São Paulo, he created two works:

In the Santa Luzia Chapel:

Vik Muniz dreamed of creating a work of a Saint, which today represents one of the greatest challenges for a contemporary artist. The Chapel in the old Matarazzo hospital was the perfect opportunity. The command was an ideal combination to celebrate his Saint, Santa Luzia, the patron saint of photographers. As always in his work, Vik brought together several images from TV soap operas and images he obtained in art books to represent humanity as a whole.

It is said that Luzia, belonging to a rich Italian family, received an excellent Christian education, to the point of having made a vow of perpetual virginity. With the death of her father, Luzia learned that her mother wanted to see her married to a young man from a distinguished, but pagan, family. Asking for time for discernment, she went on a pilgrimage to the tomb of the martyr Saint Ágeda, from where she returned with the certainty of God's will regarding virginity and the sufferings she would go through, like Saint Ágeda.

She sold everything, donated the proceeds from the sale of her material possessions to the poor, and was soon accused by the young man who wanted her as his wife for these acts. From then on, the young man began to make numerous undue accusations against Luzia, expressing his most intimate desires and asking for money, material goods, and marriage. Luzia never gave in to these comments and pressures. She remained firm and faithful to her life's purposes, and, as a result, not wanting to offer sacrifice to the gods or break her sacred vow, she had to face the persecuting authorities and even her decapitation in 303, in order to testify, with life or death, what she said: "I adore a true God, and to him I have promised love and fidelity." Ancient oral tradition says that this protection, requested from Santa Luzia, is due to the fact that she tore out her own eyes, handing them over to the executioner, preferring this to denying her faith in Christ.

In the Rosewood São Paulo Lobby: the life story of Count Agostinho Taraz

The installation presents hundreds of paintings of the same size, bringing together pieces that belonged to Count Agostinho Taraz (January 1, 1900 – December 31, 1999), telling the life of a local hero who participated in several significant events in Brazilian history. This collection presented at the Rosewood Hotel shows everything from his baby bottle, personal photographs, letters, to articles from various newspapers related to his incredible life of adventures. It is an invented fairy tale, which aims to be a critical metaphor for the great São Paulo families who founded the city.

Find out more at: https://nararoesler.art/

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