Manu Brandazza

Manuel Brandazza (b. 1975, Rosario, Argentina) graduated in textile and clothing design at the University of Buenos Aires, and was part of the Rojas-UBA/Kuitca Visual Arts Programme 2003-2005. After numerous fashion shows and performative experiences linked to design, in June 2021 he exhibits “Muchacho del Paraná” (Man from the Parana River) at Jamaica Gallery in Rosario a piece that wins the Acquisition Prize of the National Salon of Rosario Castagnino-Macro and starts a series of works that he is developing until today. With “Río Paraná” he received the Premio Estímulo Ministerio de Cultura de la Provincia at the Salón Nacional del Museo Rosa Galisteo in Santa Fe. In 2022 he held the solo exhibition “PARAMPARA” at the PASTO Gallery.

Textile design, murals, ceramics and sculpture are the main languages that converge in Manuel’s work. His latest productions evoke the ichthyic and spiritual universe of the Paraná River, integrating the formal, the poetic and the historical. The Paraná River is the starting point of his works, the first surreal landscape, a universal paradise that establishes villages, and in its abundance guarantees the continuity of life. Brandazza, like a disciple of the Paraná, seems to safeguard its liturgy, as have other artists in Argentina who have bound themselves to the river and its islands, leaving a record of the landscape they inhabit.

His work draws from a variety of universes, from the surrealist traditions of the Litoral, through pop music and the vision of key fashion designers of the 20th century, such as Jean Paul Gaultier, to the Brazilian troupes, always under the imperious need for delight. At the very same time, the pieces draw from a context marked by the ecocide that has been taking place in recent decades in the region of the Argentinean Litoral, a global phenomenon that prioritises “production” over health and the environment. Manuel reflects on and bears witness to this climate crisis, which in the region translates into a water crisis and the disappearance of wetlands.