Vincitore 2023
Pedro Wirz
L'installazione Immunité diplomatique di Pedro Wirz, artista brasiliano nato nel 1981 e residente a Zurigo, ha vinto il Bally Artist Award 2023 con un progetto che mette in discussione le prerogative di classe, il potere gerarchico e le posizioni archetipiche e l’immutabili nella società.
The installation Diplomatic Immunity (provisional title) by Pedro Wirz, a Brazilian artist born in 1981 and resident in Zurich, won the Bally Artist Award 2023, thanks to a project that challenges the class privileges, hierarchical powers, and archetypal and immutable positions in society.
The exhibition at the MASI will open on the 3rd of June in one of the rooms of the Palazzo Reali and will consist of 13 sculptures installed facing 3 wall reliefs. The 13 busts refer to leadership positions (of a king, a president, a pope, a rabbi, etc.), each reflecting a particular hierarchy of power, be it of economic, religious, political or socio-cultural origin. These busts are made of an assemblage of various materials gleaned by Pedro Wirz in his studio, in the spirit of Merzbau (1933) by constructivist artist Kurt Schwitters. Through this creative improvisation, Pedro Wirz imitates the effect of capitalism’s continual accumulation. He also refers, through a precarious aesthetic, to symbols of power which have fallen into ruin. The box-shaped wall reliefs extend a series which began in 2019 and which, metaphorically and abstractly, evokes television screens or smartphones. They represent landscapes invaded by man in different ways, ecosystems homogenized by technological intervention.
The configuration of the 13 busts in space comes from the research carried out by the artist through eminent gatherings such as the G7, the Club of Rome, or even the Last Supper in the biblical narrative. Their installation allows just enough room for visitors to circulate, the busts almost becoming obstacles to be circumvented carefully. The work thus questions the dichotomy between competition and cooperation, and questions the meaning of a “more sustainable society”, most often considered from an economic perspective. “To enter a more sustainable existence, we must confront the reality and the difficulties of cohabitation. We must go far beyond our own lives, our wishes and our vanity, and even beyond the inheritance of a family name, or principles encouraged by religious leaders or mythological figures. We need to think not as individuals but as species, that is, as inhabitants of the earth, earthlings, brothers and sisters destined to coexist simultaneously and respectfully,” says Pedro Wirz.
