Flora Industrialis
Vik Muniz

  October 18, 2023 - March 10, 2024
Tower Room
Header image: © Vik Muniz, VEGAP, Pamplona, 2023
Curator: University of Navarra Museum

This project has been made possible thanks to the support of Ernesto Fernández Holmann, Marta Regina Fischer Fernández, and Gabriela Willson.

Inspired by the engravings and drawings in the 19th-century albums of Latin American flora from the University of Navarra Museum Collection, the exhibition showcases the artist's project, which is the result of his participation in the museum'sTender Puentesartist residency program.

Since the Enlightenment, restless explorers have taken artists and scientists with them, who patiently and meticulously recorded the findings of each voyage. These expeditions gave rise to sketchbooks and volumes of expeditions and treasures from the late 17th century. Visitors can see these pieces in the exhibition A Promised Land, from the Age of Enlightenment to the Birth of Photography, serve as inspiration for the artist to create a new flora, a "Flora Industrialis" that questions our approach to reality in a technologized world of diverse representations.

Following his working process and constant innovation in the use of diverse materials as artistic mediums, Muniz transforms a handful of artificial flowers into a delicate botanical catalog of his own invention, captured in beautifully crafted photographs. 

An unexpected journey through a botanical universe born of his own creativity.

BIOGRAPHY:

The distinctive practice of Vik Muniz (Sao Paulo, 1961) is the exploration and delight in the instability that exists between craftsmanship and mechanical reproduction, between the most sublime art and popular culture, between the ephemeral and the enduring, between the codified and the recognizable. Muniz has participated in numerous solo exhibitions and museums such as the Banco de la República Art Museum (Bogotá), the Beyeler Foundation, P.S. 1 MoMA (NYC), the Pinacoteca do Estado de Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo), MACRO (Rome), the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), and the Menil Collection (Houston), and his work is included in important private and public collections around the world. (© by Holger Keifel)

With the support of:

Ernesto Fernandez Hollman, Marta Regina Fischer Fernandez, and Gabriela Willson.

TO LEARN MORE:

Interview with the artist, in which he tells us about his working process.

► ROOM SHEET

RELATED ACTIVITIES:

October 18 / 7:00 p.m. Masterclass with Vik Muniz