New work by Wagner & De Burca in De Pont Museum
The camera slowly glides through a garage. A man polishes a van with an elaborate airbrushed mural, a woman is making silkscreen prints, while in the background young musicians prepare for a performance. It is the opening scene of Future of Yesterday (2026), the latest film by Bárbara Wagner (1980, Brasília) and Benjamin de Burca (1975, Munich). Acquired for the collection of De Pont this year, the film follows the German Straight Edge hardcore punk scene.
Since 2011, Wagner and De Burca have worked together as an artistic duo, creating films, video installations and photography in which music, dance and performance play a central role. Their work allows staged and documentary elements to merge, exploring how collective forms of expression contribute to the formation of identity, community and social connectedness. For each new project, they collaborate closely with musicians, dancers and performers working outside the contemporary art world. Their productions emerge through a close collaborative process, in which the participants’ experiences, knowledge and artistic practice help shape the creative process.
For Future of Yesterday, Wagner and De Burca worked closely with the Darmstadt-based bands Blinded and One. The members of both bands collaborated closely with the artists, developing the script, music, choreography and mise-en-scène together. The result is a film that not only portrays the Straight Edge movement – a current within punk culture centred on equality, solidarity and a sober lifestyle – but also reveals how a community continually reimagines and renews its values and rituals. Beneath the raw, uncompromising aesthetics of hardcore lies a world of friendship, care and shared ideals, in which music expresses a profound sense of belonging.
Earlier films
Alongside this new acquisition, two earlier films by Wagner and De Burca from the De Pont collection will also be presented. Estás vendo coisas / You Are Seeing Things (2016) is a compelling musical film about Brazil’s technobrega culture, in which fiction and documentary seamlessly intertwine. One Hundred Steps (2020) explores the historical and cultural relationships between Ireland and North Africa, showing how music builds bridges between people and traditions.
Wagner and De Burca gained international recognition with Swinguerra, which represented Brazil at the Brazilian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2019. Their work has also been featured in solo and group exhibitions at institutions including the New Museum, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; and Whitechapel Gallery, London, as well as at the São Paulo Biennial, Manifesta and Skulptur Projekte Münster.
More information or contact:
Beau Swierstra
pressoffice@depont.nl