Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino

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Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino (1989, Buritizeiro) is a conceptual artist based in Berlin, Germany [1] , whose work on language, institutional critique, and objecthood is recognized for its precise formulation of contractual propositions. [2]

Contents

They hold a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Federal Fluminense University Law School and have completed a postgraduate artistic residency program at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig. Celestino was awarded the ars viva 2025, Bolsa Pampulha 2024, and the Ducato Prize 2023. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

The work of Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino is included in the collections of the Museu Nacional da República, Kadist, and The One Minutes Foundation at the Sandberg Instituut. [8]

Work, Research, and Critique

Curator Haris Giannouras [9] argues that Celestino's practice explores "agency and complicity" within institutional systems, highlighting the artist's agency from the exhibition and contractual structures via transactional propositions. [10] In RENTAL/FATHER (2023), Celestino proposes that the exhibiting institution rent one or more objects from their father. RENTAL/FATHER has been widely exhibited, with presentations at Simian (Copenhagen), Kunsthal Nord (Aalborg), Kunsthalle Bremen, Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm), and Haus der Kunst (Munich). [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

Their 2024 solo exhibition at Kunstverein Kevin Space in Vienna included works that involved contributions from their mother (Ana, 2024), the distribution of their body weight in municipal water across metal canisters (Peso, 2024), and an arrangement of native plant species classified as invasive in other contexts (Gift, 2024). [16] Peso (2024) was later exhibited at Kunstverein Braunschweig. [17]

Writing for C& América Latina, artist and researcher Maya Quilolo [18] described Celestino’s methodology as a form of "reverse architecture," in which spatial configurations are treated as active sites of negotiation shaped by institutional power and economic infrastructure. According to Quilolo, these gestures “claim exhibition space as an economic relationship” and foreground the “instability and insecurity of criticism as a mechanism of its creation and circulation." [19]

Critic Mateus Nunes [20] , profiling the artist for Revista Select [21] [22] , situates their practice within a “softness of boundaries,” emphasizing resistance to institutional binaries through infrastructural and familial proximity. Nunes underscores Celestino’s integration of Afro-diasporic epistemologies, framing their work as a mode of “market disobedience.”

Academic Presence

Celestino has given talks, workshops, and lectures at several educational institutions, particularly in universities in German-speaking countries, including the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, [23] [24] Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, [25] Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, [26] the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg, [27] and the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst [28] in Basel.

Awards and Residencies

Celestino was awarded the ars viva in 2025 and the Ducato Prize in 2023. They have been previously awarded other residencies, grants, and fellowships, including Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria; [29] Pampulha Grant, Brazil (Belo Horizonte Municipal Foundation for Culture); [30] Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Germany (Ministry of Science and Culture of the Lower Saxony); [4] La Becque, Switzerland (Pro Helvetia); [31] PACT Zollverein, Germany; [1] British Council, UK; [32] and Pivô, Brazil. [33]

References

  1. 1 2 "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino (Biography)". pact-zollverein.de. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  2. Kramer, Prof. Dr. Christine. "REVIEW: WISRAH C. V. DA R. CELESTINO - FROM LANGUAGE AT LEUPHANA UNIVERSITY". (...) Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino formulates a precise plea for an institutionally conscious, poetic-political art production with their Praxis. By integrating family biography, everyday objects and performative spatial design, they create complex aesthetic arrangements that question the boundaries between private and public, artistic and economic, symbolic and material. Her works are therefore not least interventions in the epistemic structure of institutional art production.
  3. "DP23 - DucatoPrize". www.ducatoprize.com. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  4. 1 2 "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino - ars viva 2025". arsviva.kulturkreis.eu. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  5. "ars viva - Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino" . Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  6. "Brazilian artist wins important German Art Prize". 22 May 2024. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
  7. "Helena Uambembe and Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino are among Winners of ars viva prize 2025" . Retrieved 2025-04-11.
  8. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino - Kunst Raum Mitte".
  9. "Haris Giannouras - MMK Frankfurt" . Retrieved 2025-04-14.
  10. Giannouras, Haris (2024). ars viva 2025 (in German and English). Kerber Verlag. ISBN   978-3-7356-0995-3.
  11. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino at Simian". www.ssiimmiiaann.org. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  12. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino at Kunsthal Nord".
  13. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino at Kunsthalle Bremen". www.kunsthalle-bremen.de. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  14. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino at Bonniers Konsthall" . Retrieved 2025-04-14.
  15. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino | Haus der Kunst" . Retrieved 2025-04-14.
  16. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino "Peso" at Kunstverein Kevin Space, Vienna — Mousse Magazine and Publishing". www.moussemagazine.it. 2024-09-26. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  17. "Group show at Kunstverein Braunschweig" . Retrieved 2025-04-11.
  18. "Maya Quilolo - Prince Clauss Fund" . Retrieved 2025-04-15.
  19. ""Reclaiming Space: Reverse Architecture in the Work of Wisrah C.V. da R. Celestino". C& AMÉRICA LATINA" . Retrieved 2025-04-11.
  20. "Mateus Nunes | MASP" . Retrieved 2025-04-15.
  21. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino: A Maciez dos Limites | Revista Select (PT-BR)" . Retrieved 2025-04-15.
  22. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino: The Softness of Boundaries | Revista Select (ENG)" . Retrieved 2025-04-15.
  23. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino - Leuphana University of Lüneburg" . Retrieved 2025-04-15.
  24. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino | From Language - Kunstraum Leuphana" . Retrieved 2025-04-15.
  25. "Transdisciplinary experiments on language, voice and authorship: Talk with Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino" . Retrieved 2025-04-11.
  26. "Akademie der Bildenden Künste München - Klasse Widmann | From Language". www.adbk.de. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  27. "Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg | Flock III: Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino". adbk-nuernberg.de. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  28. "der TANK of the Institute Art Gender Nature – Art Taaalkssss: Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino". der TANK of the Institute Art Gender Nature. 2024-02-08. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  29. "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino at Salzburger Kunstverein" . Retrieved 2025-04-15.
  30. "Bolsistas do 9º Bolsa Pampulha discutem sobre processos curatoriais no CCBB BH". Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2024-12-10. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  31. Pugin, Alicia (2022-01-16). "Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino". La Becque | Résidence d'artistes. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  32. "Exhibitions Archive – Wysing Arts Centre". www.wysingartscentre.org. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
  33. "Pivô Research". Pivô. Retrieved 2025-03-26.