Artist duo Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca have worked together to create socially and politically-engaged art since 2011. One of their first projects, Edifício Recife (2013), was a photographic series on the relationship between art, architecture, and the city as experienced by the inhabitants of Recife, Brazil. The pair have continued to use film and photography to profile contemporary society in a way that blends documentary with fiction.

One of Wagner and Burca’s most internationally recognized projects is Swinguerra (2019), a 21-minute film born from the duo’s interest in a dance phenomenon called “Swingueira,” growing in Brazil’s northeastern states.

The film, as described by Wagner, resembles a Brazilian West Side Story where costumed dance groups vie for visibility. These competitions, however, do more than just bolster street credibility. They are a form of cultural expression that celebrates the gender-fluid, trans, and queer dancers of color that make up these groups.

Presented at the Brazilian Pavilion in the 58th Venice Biennale, Swinguerra’s visual vernacular rails against repressive policies in Brazil that negatively impact women and queer peoples—pushing them further to the sidelines in a country that has the highest trans homicide rate in Latin America.

Wagner and Burca frequently work with artists who have been denied both literal and figurative space in cities around the world. Previous projects include gospel evangelists in rural Pernambuco, Black rappers and poets in Toronto, and Schlager singers in Munich. The artists’ films have been shown at Berlinale (2017, 2018, 2019), the Locarno Film Festival (2019), and the International Documentary Film Festival in Tel Aviv (2017).

“Swinguerra” by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca is on display at Kunsthall Stavanger from September 23, 2021 — January 9, 2022