Sofía Ognjenovich Vaz

Artist, author and designer born in 1988.
Master of Arts in Fashion, Royal College of Art, UK.
Founder and designer at Autora Vaz.
Lives and works in Montevideo, Uruguay.


“Sofía Ognjenovich Vaz’s work unfolds at the crossroads of text, drawing, the body, and the textile object. Her pieces begin in writing and in line, and take shape as soft sculptures that wrap, unsettle, or accompany. They are relational objects that drift away from the body and return to it: jellyfish, pillows, thorns, embraces.

That axis —the body and what dresses it— anchors both her artistic practice and her project Autora Vaz, a sustainable label where she develops biodegradable, vegan, and compostable garments made from low-impact fibers and dyed with natural pigments.

Her practice also extends into writing: Becoming an orphan is a book in which she interlaces memory, clothing, and intimate narratives.”

Araceli Pourcel

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AUTORA VAZ

Colección Piloto
Montevideo, Uruguay
2025 Textile Proyect

Hemp, EcoveroTM, Natural indigo, Madder, Black Tea, Corozo, Wood, Cotton. 
Variable Measurements.
Research project exploring modes of production and the resources used to build textile identities from the Uruguayan territory. Works with biodegradable, vegan materials and produces in collaboration with women’s cooperatives in Montevideo.

autoravaz.com
@autoravaz

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TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS

After Lygia Clark
Montevideo, Uruguay
2022-2025Wearable sculptures

Paper, pencil, canvas, thread, ceiling painting.
Variable measurements

These pieces are a studio-based investigation drawing and sculpting with fabric that is based on the work of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark.

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HIPEROBJECT

Research tutor: Susane Irving
London, UK
2022-2023Research, concept, experience and fragrance design.

Glass, copper, IFF portfolio molecules.
Variable measurements.
Research supported by International Fragrances and Flavors.

Inspired by Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World, I developed a project that considered fragrance as the shadow of a hyperobject. Focusing on the Anthropocene as a hyperobject, I designed environments that enveloped viewers in a series of scents, using smell as a way to evoke the scale and ubiquity of certain issues of this era.

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NOT EVEN THE RAIN

London, UK
Work in progress
2022-presentVideoperformance / Installation

Pencil on paper, canvas, thread, polylactic acid, digital media.
Casting made using Tinder app.
Variable measurements.


This piece explores memories anchored in the body’s physical memory. It proposes narration as a way of articulating events, dramatizing them, sharing them, and reclaiming them. The central work is a video-performance built around a minimal gesture that is later dramatized. In the final section, everyone involved in the film offers feedback on what they think happened.

The accompanying pieces echo the narrative as it is presented: fragmented, fragile, emotionally intense, and open to multiple readings.

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BECOMING AN ORPHAN

Montevideo, Uruguay
2020-2024Performance / Book

Garments, hangers, suitcase, paper. 
Duration variable.
Book: Hardcover, 128 pages, 120 x 200 cm

This work investigates the meaning embedded in our most intimate objects: clothing. In 2020, during the pandemic and as my mother’s illness progressed, I compulsively bought garments, as if trying to shield myself with layers of fabric. I wrote down the expectations and fantasies I projected onto each piece and compared them with the relationship I ultimately formed with them.

The initial presentation was a performance in which I interacted with the audience, sharing some of these stories while the garments hung on a rack. Each piece carried a tag; when scanned, it played the corresponding narrated text.

In 2024 it was published as a novel, preserving the original visual language and catalogue-like spirit. I recycled the eighty shopping bags I had saved and turned them into eighty handmade bookmarks inscribed with passages from the book.

Performance at Pensión Cultural Milán, 2021
Published by Editorial Encuentros, 2024

Video documentation

©Sofía Ognjenovich, 2025. All rights reserved.