David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) emerged as one of the most compelling voices of the 1980s East Village art scene. Largely self-taught, he worked fluidly across disciplines such as writing, film, performance, and activism, creating a body of work that was at once fiercely political and profoundly personal. Combining found and discarded materials with an incisive literary sensibility, Wojnarowicz forged a distinctive artistic language that reflected both the urgency of his time and his own complex world.

Initially exhibited in the raw storefront galleries of downtown New York, his work soon gained national attention. Diagnosed with HIV in the late 1980s, Wojnarowicz became an unflinching voice in the fight against the AIDS crisis, aligning himself with activist movements such as ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and the artist collective Gran Fury. Until his death in 1992, he produced a body of work that remains as conceptually rigorous as it is stylistically diverse.

Ephemera & Film marks the first exhibition of David Wojnarowicz in Brazil. It focuses on films and archival materials collected over the past decade as part of the Moraes-Barbosa Collection, including photographs, test prints, invitation cards, publications, silkscreens, and 16mm and Super 8 films. Together, these materials trace an artistic practice rooted in the intersections of personal history, political resistance, and cultural critique.

Throughout his practice, recurring symbols and metaphors such as maps, elements, industrial landscapes, religious and mythological imagery reflect his deep concern for humanity, animals, and the natural world. The four-channel video “ITSOFOMO (In the Shadow of Forward Motion)” 1989, with its image of a snake approaching a mouse, evokes a universal struggle for survival. Similarly, “A Fire in My Belly” 1986–1987, meditates on cultural and spiritual identity. Filmed in Mexico City on 25 rolls of Super 8, the work captures fragments of social life, including the haunting image of a child performing as a fire-breather—an echo of Wojnarowicz’s own past. The artist later intercut this footage with staged sequences filmed in his New York apartment: coins dropping into a plate of blood, a dancing marionette with a gun, and the now-iconic self-portrait with his lips sewn shut. Though never completed, “A Fire in My Belly” remains one of his most visceral and emblematic works.

Ephemera & Film reflects on Wojnarowicz as both artist and activist during a time of profound political and personal upheaval. The exhibition highlights a practice that continues to resonate—offering inspiration to subsequent generations and renewed relevance in cities like São Paulo, where questions of visibility, identity, and resistance remain deeply urgent.
 

-Krist Gruijthuijsen, curator