Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca: Mirror of Power

Created exclusively for Sesc Avenida Paulista, Mirror of Power is an exhibition conceived as an audiovisual show, directed by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca and curated by Clarissa Diniz, in collaboration with the alingua collective. The project features the films Swinguerra (2019) and One Hundred Steps (2020), presented for the first time in Brazil in an installation that integrates Sesc's accessibility policy with the duo's collective creation method. 

Wagner and de Burca have been working together for over a decade. Coming from different continents—Bárbara Wagner is Brazilian, Benjamin de Burca is Irish—the duo collaborates with each other and with other artists. Drawing from the concept of the scene, a fundamental element of theater and cinema, they invite artists to perform themselves in short films dedicated to various forms and contexts of cultural production. Viewing the camera lens as a mirror, each participant reflexively recreates themselves as a character and takes part in the film's scripting. This working method fosters exchanges between artists and the poetic-political perspectives that collective creation brings together. 

By experimenting with their working method in dialogue with an institution—Sesc São Paulo—Mirror of Power transforms the films Swinguerra and One Hundred Steps into characters themselves. Through Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) interpretation, audio description, and subtitles, the films re-enact themselves, embracing Sesc's accessibility policy, curated and performed by the alingua collective, which becomes the protagonist of the show. 

Throughout the exhibition, Mirror of Power explores mediation strategies between educational and curatorial practices. Indra Haretrava—an artist of voice and word—acts as the master of ceremonies, leading a large team presented through an artistic-curatorial experiment inspired by traditional film credits. The team includes Juliana Godoy (art direction and exhibition design), Carlos Sá (music production), Estúdio Margem (design), João Turchi (dramaturgy), and Anna Turra (lighting). 

Mirror of Power opens pathways to explore how art, education, and accessibility can strengthen one another. The show poetically captures and unfolds the central demand of cultural democracy: that symbolic production and the capacity to aesthetically affect should not be restricted to privileged layers of authorized creators. 

About the films 
Swinguerra (2019) was filmed in the metropolitan region of Recife, between Olinda and Jaboatão dos Guararapes (Brazil), while One Hundred Steps takes place between Cork (Ireland) and Marseille (France). Despite being radically different in landscapes, characters, and expressions, the films converge on a recurring theme in the duo's work: how culture is performed through bodies, stages, streets, and images—choreographing disputes, performing alliances, and reigniting struggles. 

Swinguerra dramatizes the competitive universe of swingueira, brega funk, and passinho, highlighting how these musical genres reinvent the cultural and political resistance of Recife's peripheral communities. Through provocative and sometimes combative performativity, they update their memories through rhythm, dance, and poetry. 

In contrast, One Hundred Steps re-enacts guided tours of elite English and French house museums. The presence of bodies, voices, and musicality of those historically expropriated by these elites challenges their wealth and power, profaning the supposed sanctity of spaces where colonial barbarism was transformed into cultural heritage. 

In these films, mirroring functions not only as a method and metaphor but also as audiovisual thought and language. Swinguerra unfolds across two screens, exploring repetitions and differences between images that face each other like doubles in a ring. Meanwhile, One Hundred Steps is structured in two mirrored chapters, exploring continuities and suspensions between times, spaces, and subjects.