An assortment of African masks installed in Vik Muniz's home in Salvador, Brazil.
Photo: Marcio Lima
The Collectors: Vik Muniz
The Brazilian artist favors dramatic groupings such as a wall of some 50 African masks from Mali, Benin, and the Ivory Coast that he has amassed over the past two decades
Brazilian artist Vik Muniz. Photo: Ivo Hoekstra
“I like making collections of things,” says Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, whose clever photographic re-creations of iconic images utilize unexpected materials such as diamonds, toys, chocolate syrup, and trash.
His penchant for collecting extends to homes, with addresses in Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Paris, which he shares with his wife, Malu Barretto, who runs an interior design company. Shortly before the pandemic, they acquired a 19th-century house in Salvador on one of the oldest streets in the Brazilian port city and completed its renovation themselves during lockdown.
Pride of place: Built into a cliff overlooking the Bay of All Saints, the four-story residence has airy, open spaces studded with the couple’s acquisitions, including colorful paintings by local folk artists, Nigerian crowns woven with vibrant fibers and beadwork, and Barretto’s assortment of 18th-century saints sculpted in wood or ivory.
A display of Vik Muniz's 18th-century religious statuettes. Photo: Marcio Lima
“You feel the whole spectrum of not only faith but also creativity”
Vik Muniz
Faithful representation: Muniz favors dramatic groupings, such as a wall of some 50 African masks from Mali, Benin, and the Ivory Coast that he has amassed over the past two decades. “If you have a cluster of them, they become something similar to what the culture is here,” says Muniz, calling Salvador a Pan-African Mecca. “Some of the masks are anthropomorphic; some of them describe emotions or a spiritual state. You feel the whole spectrum of not only faith but also creativity.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Late Fall Issue under the headline “The Collectors.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: An assortment of African masks installed in Vik Muniz's home in Salvador, Brazil.
Photo: Marcio Lima
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