Vik Muniz in Vancouver
The Vancouver Biennale announces the Canadian debut of world-renowned Brazilian artist Vik Muniz. In celebration of his upcoming large-scale mosaic land art installation in Squamish, the public is invited to meet the artist in person and learn more about his uniquely inspiring and critically acclaimed work at two screenings of his documentary films:
1. Waste Land, the Sundance Film Festival winner and Academy Award-nominated documentary chronicles Muniz’s work at a Brazilian junkyard located in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Working from photographs of the impoverished local garbage-pickers, Muniz creates grand scale mosaic portraits by repurposing junkyard scraps. His collaboration with the pickers reveals their essential dignity and humanity through art.
2. This Is Not a Ball is the Canadian premiere of Muniz’s directorial debut, which chronicles the creation of a massive new artwork using 20,000 soccer balls in the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup 2014. The documentary follows Muniz as he explores the global passion for soccer. In his journey, Muniz uncovers a network of intriguing people and stories, with subjects ranging from sports to astrophysics, gender politics and history.
Waste Land with Vik Muniz in Squamish
Date: Monday, July 21st
Time: 7:00 PM Waste Land
9:00 PM Q&A with Vik Muniz
Location: Totem Hall
1380 Stawamus Road, Squamish
An Evening with Vik Muniz in Vancouver
Date: Wednesday, July 23rd
Time: 6:30 PM This is Not a Ball
8:00 PM Waste Land
9:30 PM Moderated discussion with Vik Muniz
Location: Rio Theatre
1660 East Broadway, Vancouver
Tickets: $20.00 in advance
$25.00 at the door
From July 21st to August 8th, Vik Muniz and his team will be in Squamish working with First Nations groups and the local community to create a grand-scale land mosaic that incorporates local natural materials and imagery into a portrait of a Squamish resident so large that it must be viewed from an elevated platform. “This landmark installation will testify to art’s ability to transcend boundaries and capture the essential history, landscape and spirit of a community”, says Barrie Mowatt, President of the Vancouver Biennale. “Muniz is a master at revealing the character of people in a way that transforms our thinking, our stereotypes and attitudes”.
To volunteer to participate on the project, people are asked to sign up on the Vancouver Biennale website.
About the Artist
The ingenious Muniz creates finely-detailed mosaics from unconventional materials, including diamonds, soccer balls and junkyard rubbish. “Art is the stuff of transformation,” says Muniz, and indeed the artist’s remarkable career has taken him from working class roots in Sao Paulo to the rarified upper echelons of the international art world. Muniz’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Tate Modern in London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In 2001, Muniz was selected to represent Brazil at the 49th Venice Biennial.
Report courtesy of Vancouver Biennale.