Pedro Wirz - Trilobites

Pedro Wirz’s artis­tic prac­tice is deeply shaped by his bio­gra­phy. Gro­wing up in rural Brazil, the son of a bio­lo­gist and an agro­no­mist, he deve­lo­ped a pro­found con­nec­tion to nature, plants, and living orga­nisms — but also to the pro­ces­ses of com­mo­di­fi­ca­tion that come with their com­mer­cial explo­ita­tion. His Swiss-born par­ents con­duc­ted rese­arch at the inter­sec­tion of civi­liza­tion and nature, stu­dy­ing com­post, frogs, and bees. Wit­nessing first­hand the fra­gi­lity of nature and the des­truc­tion of the rain­fo­rest, Wirz trans­la­ted these expe­ri­en­ces into a com­pel­ling artis­tic prac­tice, which will now be expe­ri­en­ced for the first time in Zurich’s public space.

Now based in Zurich, the sculp­tor works with uncon­ven­tio­nal mate­ri­als, such as pot­ting soil from hard­ware stores, roots from the forest, and tex­ti­les sourced from second-hand shops. The egg, a recur­ring motif, holds a cen­tral place in Wirz’s artis­tic uni­verse. For his instal­la­tion at Euro­pa­al­lee — fried eggs see­mingly sizz­ling on erra­tic bould­ers — Wirz employs tra­di­tio­nal sculp­tu­ral mate­ri­als such as stone and bronze. The fusion of form, mate­rial, and mea­ning, accor­ding to the artist, serves as «an alle­gory of the instru­men­ta­liza­tion of nature by human society.» The title, refe­ren­cing long-extinct marine crea­tures, unders­cores the eph­emer­a­lity of exis­tence.

Pedro Wirz (*1981 in Pin­da­mon­h­an­gaba, Brazil) is one of the most signi­fi­cant artists of his gene­ra­tion. His works have been pre­sen­ted inter­na­tio­nally in num­e­rous solo and group exhi­bi­ti­ons. His solo exhi­bi­ti­ons include PHIL­IPP­ZOLLIN­GER in Zurich (2024), Nagel Drax­ler in Colo­gne (2023), Kunst­halle Basel (2022), and Marc Selwyn Fine Art in Los Ange­les (2020). His group exhi­bi­ti­ons fea­tured pre­sen­ta­ti­ons at the Centre d’Art Con­tem­po­rain Genève (2023), Aar­gauer Kunst­haus (2019), and the Tin­guely Museum in Basel (2016). In 2023, Pedro Wirz was awarded the Bally Artist Award. He is repre­sen­ted by Nagel Drax­ler (Berlin, Colo­gne, Munich) and Phil­ipp­Zollin­ger (Zurich).