Paulo Wirz at ArtGenève Fair 2026

Paulo Wirz (b. 1990, Pindamonhangaba, Brazil) is a Swiss-Brazilian artist currently living and working between Zurich and Marseille. Since completing his BA in Photography, his practice has expanded across various media, including site-specific installations, sculpture, drawing, as well as video and film. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and the study of religions, Wirz references burial rituals, funerary architecture, and domestic, ludic, and oneiric environments to examine the symbolic systems through which societies construct memory, preservation, and self-imagination. His work is structured around notions of conservation, transmission, detachment, visibility, and invisibility.

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After completing his MA studies in Geneva in, he was awarded the Prix New Heads 2019. In 2021, he received the Swiss Art Awards, placing him on the radar as a promising position within the Swiss national art scene. Since 2022, Wirz has participated in several international residency programs in cities including Berlin, Paris, Como, Cairo, Bucharest, and most recently Marseille.

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In 2024, Wirz completed a fellowship as an early-career fellow at the Collegium Helveticum ETH Zurich, followed in 2025 by a Werkstipendium from the Canton of Zurich. In the first half of 2026, he will undertake a research project with Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado in São Paulo and present a solo exhibition at Engländerbau in Vaduz and a group presentation at Kunsthalle St Gallen. Upcoming projects also include a solo presentation at Teodoro, in Porto, a solo exhibition at Suprainfinit gallery in Bucharest, and a group exhibition at Orlando in São Paulo. Most Recent projects include Marés (2026), a site-specific intervention within the Mucem collection in Marseille; Dormitórios (2025), a solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Arbon; Werkschau, a group exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur; and Swiss Art Awards (2025) in Basel. His work has been presented widely across Switzerland at institutions such as Kunsthalle Basel, Helmhaus, Haus Konstruktiv, CAN, Kunsthalle FriArt, Villa Bernasconi, Villa dei Cedri, La Rada, and the Centre d’Art Contemporain de Genève.

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