Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Wagner Morales (São Paulo, Brazil, 1971) - Graduated in anthropology from the University of São Paulo, Wagner Morales, within the audiovisual field, began taking interest in documentaries. This initial interest, certainly a consequence of his formation, does not restrain Morales from creating a wide range of productions, which includes experimental works and videoinstallations. These passages between the documentary and the experimental video can be realized in the uncommon procedures used in the construction of the works, or even in the thematic choices which reveal views of the world and of the contemporary audiovisual universe.

Morales began his professional career in video producer companies, working as an editor and director. Between 1995 and 1997, he specialized in multimedia at the University of Campinas.

Between 1998 and 2002, he produced works (videos and installations) that thematize issues related to the trajectories of the bodies (human or not) in the space. This theme is present in the videoinstallations “Bloombaalde” (1998), “Eliot” (1999), and “Rossi 22” (2002).

In other hand, in the documentaries “Olhos Opacos” [Opaque Eyes] (1998) and “Na Lona” [On The Ground] (2002), Morales displayed the limits between the body and the space surrounding it. The former, produced with the help of a prize fund provided by Campinas’ city council, is a sensitive essay which displays the relations between vision and memory, dream and language, and mix statements, texts and hazy images from films and videos to approach the universe of the blind people. The second one, produced with the help of a prize fund provided by the Secretary of Culture of the city of São Paulo, displays the ambience of amateur boxing at the outskirts of São Paulo. The documentary transcends the simple approach to the sport, revealing peculiar aspects of life in the outskirts of big cities.

Both works have taken part in many festivals and exhibitions, including the É tudo verdade Festival (It’s all true Festival) in São Paulo, in 1999 and 2003 respectively.

Afterwards, between 2000 and 2002, he began to produce videos with specific themes which are developed into series. In this phase, three videos form the series “Não Há Ninguém Aqui” (There Is Nobody Here). In these videos, Morales reflects on the impossibility of communication and meeting at the great metropolises. In spite of being experimental videos, they bear marks of the artist’s experiences with documentaries.

The three videos bear these marks, but, probably, the best example is “Não Há Ninguém Aqui #1”. Morales publishes a newspaper classified ad with a fictitious name of a man who is looking for a girlfriend. The phone number in the ad is the one of his answerphone, which collects almost desperate messages of women who want to stop being lonely. These messages – some women called thousands of times – form the audio that guides the empty city’s nocturnal images from the interior of a car.

The videos of this series have been exhibited and have taken part in many festivals, as the 13th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, São Paulo; the Rio BR Festival, Rio de Janeiro; the 5th Bienal de Video e Novas Mídias, in Santiago, Chile; the Medio@rte Latino, Berlin, Germany, and the VIDARTE 2002, in the city of Mexico, Mexico.

In 2003, Morales began the production of a new series of thematic videos. This time, he approaches the universe of the traditional cinema and keeps a dialogue with the language clichés of the cinema and its genres. The first of the series is “Filme de Horror” (Horror Film), in which Morales, through a single plane, tries to recreate the atmosphere of these films. Afterwards, he produces “Ficção Científica” [Science Fiction] (2003), which assembles extracts from the dialogues of the film “Solaris” (1972), by the Russian director Andrei Tarkovski, and superpose common images of a new year party, a corridor of a hotel, and the dance floor of a club which, recreated in the edition, generate the ambience of a sci-fi film. The video received the Le Fresnoy Prize for Audiovisual Creation at the 14th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, what gave the opportunity for the artist to develop his work during a residency in the institution in Tourcoing, north of France. For this same series he produced “Cassino – Filme de Estrada” [Casino – Road Movie] (2003), which was awarded by Centro Cultural São Paulo.

In 2003, Morales was awarded for the plot of the documentary “Preto Contra Branco” (Black Against White) at the 1st Doc TV, promoted by TV Cultura and the Ministry of Culture. Afterwards, he was awarded by the Jan Vrijman Fund, Amsterdam, Holland, for the post-production of the feature film version of the same documentary.