Julia Retz (Campinas, São Paulo, 1987), based in in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been selected for Salta art’s program 2024 at AIR-M Ebenböckhaus in Munich. The residency is a collaboration between the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich and Salta art.

Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts and Design from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and a Master’s degree in Interior Architecture from the Sandberg Instituut.Retz, Retz works across visual arts, furniture design, and interior architecture. Her practice is deeply informed by her architectural background and critical perspective on modern Brazilian architecture.

Retz’s work centers on transforming spaces and exploring inclusivity and sensitivity to diverse forms of life. Engaging in dialogues with occupants, she reinvents both functional and nonfunctional spaces, challenging predefined roles and pushing boundaries. Her installations, found in schools, galleries, private homes, and meeting spaces, transcend traditional functionality to reimagine environments. She examines the architectural implications of artists’ works and delves into the historical and political narratives embedded in architectural structures. Through her work, she seeks to peel away layers of history and trauma and propose new ways to reimagine power structures inscribed within them.

Retz critiques the authoritarian nature of traditional architectural practices that often marginalize diverse experiences. She advocates for rethinking space organization to create environments that are inclusive and sensitive to varied forms of life. Her exploration of flexible materials, such as rubber, symbolizes the tension and adaptability within architectural structures, contrasting sharply with the rigid monumental forms of conventional architecture.

Inspired by Céline Condorelli’s concept of “support structures,” Retz reimagines furniture as more than functional objects. She views chairs and tables as integral to various activities, from educational processes to workshops and performances. For Retz, furniture must be supportive, adaptable, and deeply connected to the human body and its needs, blending practicality with empathy and inclusivity.

During the residency Julia Retz aims to enliven spaces by transcending predetermined structures and questioning how these spaces can become more inclusive and sensitive to different ways of living. Retz challenges conventional notions of space and identity through her interdisciplinary practice, investigating Brazilian architecture and its discourse of modernity.

Retz’s was nominated by Pivô and selected by Salta art’s committee members, Gloria Hasnay (interim director, Kunstverein München), José Roca (artistic director, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, director, FLORA ars+natura) and curator Kiki Mazzucchelli and a representative from the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich.

The residency is supported by the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich and Pivô.