Janaina Wagner

Janaina Wagner works in video, photography, drawing, installation and scenography. The Brazilian artist is interested in the ways humans impose structures of control and order upon the environment. Frequently appropriating found footage and materials, Wagner depicts post-apocalyptic scenes, images of dark, gloomy forests and bizarre man-made structures. An example of the latter is the film, Ventura (2018), which documents a gigantic elephant that is a tourist attraction in Nantes, France, that celebrates Jules Verne’s death anniversary. In her 2018 film Licantropia, Wagnerfollows a modern-day Werewolf, a hybrid being that is historically blamed for its animalistic nature. Wanger’s work, however, shows how it is the man and his violent control that is at the core of the darkness associated with the creature. Mythology is strongly present across the artist’s practice. For instance, the Curupira, a Brazilian mythical creature that lives in and protects the forests, is a starting point in her research into deforestation in Brazil. Existing at the intersection of fiction and reality, Wagner’s works challenge human domination and give space to that which is natural.