Maurício Ianês (they/es/ela/no pronouns – Santos, Brazil, 1973) is an artist and academic researcher who has lived and worked in Vienna since 2021. Ianês graduated in Fine Arts Pedagogy from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), São Paulo, in 1998 and holds a Master's degree in Art from the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP). Ianês is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Studies at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. Since September 2021, Ianês has taught in the Transmediale Kunst department at the Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien.
Ianês's work examines how verbal and visual languages establish social and political hierarchies. Through situations involving exchange, collaboration and conflict, many of their works invite the public to intervene, shape, and disrupt the artwork. Often taking place within institutional settings, these encounters question who is authorised to speak, act and produce meaning, and under what conditions.
By redistributing artistic decisions and opening the work to collective processes, Ianês challenges conventional ideas of authorship, the artist's fixed identity, and the art market's central role. Their practice also confronts the authority of art institutions and the institution of Art and its exceptional status in society. Working across media, Ianês creates installative, participatory, process-based actions, installations, wall paintings, drawings, digital photographs, environments, and graphic, textual videos that expose the politics and ideology embedded in language, images, and the structures of the art system.
Ianês has presented their work in international exhibitions, including "The Disagreement: A Theatre of Dissent" (2024), Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Vienna, Austria; "No Intermission" (2022), Carré Theater, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; "Somos Muit+s" (2019), Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; "Il Coltello nella Carne" (2018), PAC Milano, Milan, Italy; "Terra Comunal – Marina Abramović and Marina Abramović Institute" (2015), SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil; "Des Choses en Moins, Des Choses en Plus" (2014), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; the 2nd Biennial of Montevideo, Uruguay (2014); and the 28th and 29th International São Paulo Biennials (2008 and 2010), São Paulo, Brazil.