Once again, the duo Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca gains international prominence with their impactful productions that transit between cinema and visual arts, documentary and fiction and that, for the most part, deal with “peripheral” realities of different cities in the world.
This time, the Recife-based duo – Bárbara is from Brasilia and Benjamin was born in Munich – received, with the short RISE, the Audi Short Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival. The award is granted by the automaker, which is one of the event's sponsors. In May, the duo will also represent Brazil at the 58th Venice Biennale – chosen by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, curator of the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo.
According to Wagner, RISE is “a hip-hopera made in collaboration with poets, rappers and singers from the incredible collective RISE (REACHING INTELLIGENT SOULS EVERYWHERE), in Toronto”. The short documents the work of these young people who find themselves in a community center in the suburbs of the Canadian city and was filmed in a subway station in the city.
Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca have been working together since 2011 and have had works presented at museums, festivals and biennials, many of which have been awarded. At the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo they exhibited are you seeing things, created in collaboration with brega MCs from Recife.
Whether in Brazil or abroad, the duo claims to seek a “doing together” – and not a unilateral work – with the groups they work with. “What I want is to be inside, to talk, to enter into agreements. It's not about going there, taking a product from them and showing it outside," Wagner told ARTE!Brasileiros at the time of the 32nd Bienal de SP.
