January to April 2027: Gustavo Prata, *1987, São Paulo
Gustavo Prata – “The Weight of Paper”
How are the stories through which we understand the present created? Who decides what is important – and how an event is told?
Brazilian artist Gustavo Prata explores the production and circulation of public narratives. Collecting, organising and archiving are central to his artistic practice. He works with ordinary materials such as newspapers, magazines, packaging and advertising leaflets, transforming them into collages and large-scale installations.
During his residency at Villa Sonnenberg, Prata will develop “The Weight of Paper”. Over an extended period, he will collect and analyse the Aargauer Zeitung and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He is interested in how the same events can be presented differently through headlines, language, images, charts and editorial choices. Rather than searching for one absolute truth, he focuses on the coexistence of different perspectives and narratives – and on the myths that can emerge from them.
The collected material will become both new artworks and a visual archive of the present. The changing role of printed newspapers adds another dimension to the project. As information increasingly moves into digital spaces, newspapers may gradually disappear from everyday life. Materials that are disposable today may eventually become relics of an earlier system of information.
Gustavo Prata, born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1987, works across collage, drawing and installation. His artistic practice explores narratives, consumption, appropriation and obsolescence. He often works with collected everyday materials such as newspapers, packaging, magazines and advertising leaflets.
Prata holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication/Marketing from ESPM in São Paulo and completed postgraduate studies in Graphic Design at Miami Ad School. He has also studied art history, Brazilian and Latin American art, and contemporary art at institutions in São Paulo and Barcelona.
His solo exhibitions include “Echoes”, Clima Gallery, Porto Alegre (2026); “Blisters”, Soda Arte, São Paulo (2024); “You don’t form the crazy sentences that you cultivate out there”, Eduardo Fernandes Gallery, São Paulo (2024); “Beyond the object”, Karla Osório Gallery, Brasília (2024); and “Yesterday’s Amalgams”, Ordovás Cultural Center (2022). His works are represented in public collections in Rio de Janeiro, São Bernardo do Campo and Caxias do Sul.
He has participated in several artist residencies in Brazil, including Fonte Residency, Karla Osório Gallery, Kaaysá Art Residency, São João Residency, Vera Building and Hermes Visual Arts.
