Mona Lisa in strawberry jam

Two works by Vik Muniz in the Lausanne exhibition Keystone

The works of a Brazilian artist whose materials include chocolate, spaghetti, tomato ketchup and cigarette ash are currently being exhibited in Lausanne.

Vik Muniz first creates copies of well-known works of art and then takes pictures of them. The exhibition at the Musée de l’Elysée consists of photographs – for example of a Mona Lisa made of strawberry jam and a Monet landscape made from 8,000 metres of thread.

Sugar and cigarette ash are other materials Muniz uses. He creates images of images with these materials, which he then prints as large-format photographs.

A graduate in media studies with a specialisation in advertising, the Sao Paulo-born artist also reproduces familiar press images from memory using the same simple and unusual materials.

As the exhibition catalogue indicates, his playful approach is in keeping with the spirit of postmodernism which, through the interplay of the copy and the act of appropriation, encourages the spectator to reflect on the importance of images in society.

swissinfo