Márcio Carvalho is an artist whose projects are primarily focused on collective technologies and practices of remembering, and how they influence individual and group memory of past events.
Carvalho's interest in memory and remembrance was triggered by the complexity of his family story - a multiracial family made of Angolans and Portugueses. Carvalho shares the ancestors of two distinct world geographies with distinct epistemological and belief systems, and its based on them that he complicates the notions of autobiographical and collective remembrance. Love, witchcraft, post colonial thinking, post memory and exile stories of his family are some of the elements he departs from to understand what constitutes today's societies economy of remembrance, and how to create another memorial culture that uses alternative stories and forms of remembrance to fight against injustices and forms of violence that result from authoritarian forms of power, inequality and racism.
His work examines public life and archives, autobiographical memory and collective memory, with a focus on acts of remembering and their biological, cultural and social influences. He uses art as a process-based practice and a tool to examine representational memories that are embedded in different urban and private settings, specially the ones that still commemorate colonialism and Imperialism at a cost of indigenous peoples exploitation and oppression. In an attempt to interrupt the ways offitial narratives create an idea and experience of the past, and with the objective of finding stories that can counterpoint the hegemony of history with a capital H, Carvalho is engaged with different format of participatory work, collaborating with distinct peoples, communities and groups in 5 different continents, where he used art and its affects to find "memory", to bring to surface non western perspectives and technologies of knowledge and to complicate what constitutes today's notions of history and collective remembrance.
Education
2021 - 2025
PHD - Performing Arts, Image and movement, Lisbon University of Fine Arts, Portugal
2011 - 2013
Master Degree – SODA Performing Arts UDK/HZT, Berlin, Germany
2004 - 2006
Master Degree – Visual Arts University of art and design (ESAD) Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
2001 - 2003
Bachelor Degree - Visual Arts University of art and design (ESAD) Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
Grants/Residencies
SecondPlace – Honorable Mention – Price for the contextualization of king Leopold II statue, Museum of Art and History, Brussels (2024)
Grant Berlin NEUSTART (6 months), Stiftung Kunstfonds, Berlin (2022)
3 moth grant for Artist Residency at Air351, Grant by PLMJ, Lisbon, PT (2022)
1 year grant project, Bundesverband Soziokultur, Mannehim, Germany (2021)
Recherchestipendien Bildende Kunst Scholarship, Berlin Senat (2019)
Goethe Institute Coproduction Fund, Goethe Institute Lisbon Scholarship (2018)
Recherchestipendien Bildende Kunst Scholarship, Berlin Senat(2017)
Scholarship for Artist Residency, Goethe Institute Yaoundé, Cameroon (2016)
Grant for Internationalization, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal (2016)
Grant for Internationalization, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal (2013)
Exhibitions/Projects (Selection)
2021
2020
Group show, Arte no Jardim, curated by Benjamin Weil and Marcelo Gonczarowska, Camões Institute, Embassy of Portugal, Brasilia
Group show, Coupe de Ville 2024, curated by Stef Van Bellingen, WARP, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
Group show, Portais do Tempo, curated by Pauline Foessel and Underdogs Gallery, Lisnave, Almada, Portugal
Group show, Ancestry Traveller, curated by Maria Manuela Lopes, i3s Porto, Portugal
Keynote speaker, (Un)comfortable Heritage Sites, Sagres Fortress, Sagres, Portugal
Solo show, MOVART gallery, curated by João Silvério, Lisbon
Solo show, Camões Berlin, Botschaft Kunstraum, Berlin
Project and solo show Lugar(es), CAM em Movimento, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon Group exhibition, Bismarck, Berlin Zitadelle Museum, Berlin
Group show, Transition Zones, curated by João Silvério, Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon Festival Iminente, Curated by Pauline Foessel, Lisbon
Group show, Good, Less Good and other Survivors, curated by João Silvério, PLMJ Foundation, Lisbon
Project, Heritage at Risk, Curated by Christina Skarpari, Agros, Cyprus
Biennial A Dobradiça, Curated by Cecile Bourne Farrell, Mação, Portugal
Keynote speaker, Artistic PHD Conference, Zurich University of Arts, Zurich
Group show, “Europa Oxalá”, Curated by António Pinto Ribeiro, Katia Kameli and Aimé Mpane, Africa Museum, Brussels
Group show, O Estado do Mundo: Museu do Atlântico Sul, Curated by Marcelo Rezende, Lisbon Municipal Galeries, Lisbon
Group show, Xarkis, Curated by Christina Skarpari, Agros, Cyprus
Artist in Residency, AIR 351, Lisbon
Project, artist residency, Ìràpadà: Restitution Grammar in Focus, curated by Michael Dieminger and Humboldt 99 questions, Berlin, DE.
Group show, “Europa Oxalá”, Curated by António Pinto Ribeiro, Ka- tia Kameli and Aimé Mpane, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, PT.
Artists in residency and solo exhibition, curated by Clymene Christoforou, D6, Newcastle, UK
One-year artist residency / Project / solo show, “There is no about us, with- out us”, Curated by Jan Possmann, Zeitraumexit, Manneim, DE.
Group show “Europa Oxalá”, MUCEM, curated by António Pinto Ribeiro, Katia Kameli and Aimé Mpane, Marseille, FR.
Collaboration project, Contested Desires, curated by D6 (Newcastle), XARKIS (Cyprus), Fresh Milk (Barbados) Labonne (Spain), Eccom (Italy), LAC (Portu- gal).
Project for a new memorial to the Gastarbeiter, Zeitraumexit, Mannheim, Germany
National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa
Contested Desires, ongoing project with residencies, exhibitions, seminars, performances, Portugal, Cyprus, UK, Barbados, Spain and Italy
Triennale Museum of Milan, Hacking Monuments, Milan, Italy
Group show, Involuntary Monuments, Contemporão, São Paulo, Brazil
Festival Opean – European Concert & Performance, Einstein Kultur, Munique, Germany
Group show, Palimpsests, Penafiel Museum of Art, Portugal
Festival Face to Face – Psychological Games, Gwangju, South Korea
Festival os performance, Open Arts Space, Merge Gallery, Busan, South Korea
Group show, Hypermnesia, Underground Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
Festival BlurBorders, KhonKhan University Gallery of Fine Art, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Lecture, Chronicles and Epopeias – The Side Dish Menu, KhonKhan University Aula, Thailand
Community Art festival, Urak Lavoy village, Koh Lanta, Thailand
2018
Festival History Will Be Kind To Me, For I Intend To Perform It, New Performance Turku Festival, Turku
(Finland), Performance Art Bergen, Bergen (Norway), PALS, Stockolm (Sweden)
Group show, Geographies of Imagination, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
KONTEKSTY nternational Sokolovsko Festival of Ephemeral Art, Sokolovsko, Poland
Project Demythologize That History and Put It To Rest, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (Germany),
Hangar,Lisbon (Portugal)
Group show, On Notions of Hostipitality, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2017
Solo show, Bitter Pats. Bitter Kola, MUTE Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
BLIND SPOT PROJECT15th, HZT (Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz) Berlin, Germany
Group show, Muscle Memory, kuntlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Present Performance Festival, Gdansk Gallery, Gdansk, Poland
Festival SUPERCOPY (Residency, Exhibition, performance) Zeitraumexit, Mannheim
SODA 10 years Festival, Uffer Studios, Berlin, Germany
Blind spot - Performance presentation, Meteor Festival, Bergen Kunst Hall, Bergen, Norway
2016
RAVY Biennial, YaoundŽ, Cameroon
Exhibition and Seminar – A Meeting in Turku in 2016, Aboa Avetus & Ars Nova Museum, Turku
Borderline Festival, Tehdas Theater, Turku, Finland
Blind Spot project, Berlin, Tokyo, Bucharest, Bergen, Fredrikstad
MOPE Festival, Vaasa, Finland
New Performance Turku Festival, Turku, Finland
2015
Thessaloniki Biennial, Thessaloniki, Greece
Curitiba Biennial, Curitiba, Brasil
Steirischer Herbst Festival, Graz, Austria
Verbo Festival, Vermelho Gallery, São Paulo, Brasil
Solo Show, If Mz Grandmother Was a Historian, Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin
New Performance Turku Festival, Turku, Finland
Peninsula Project, Embassy of Italy, Berlin
Floating Platforms – Art and Science project, Aboagora Symposium/New performance Turku Festival, Turku, Finland
2014
Solo Show and performance, Gemäldegalerie, part of Giving Contours to Shadows project by NBK and Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
Giving Contours to Shadows, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, Germany
Accumulation project, Boston University’s 808 Gallery, Boston, US
Organization for Human Brain Mapping Annual Congress, CCH - Congress Center Hamburg, Germany
The Bodies We Tell - Collective exhibition, National Gallery for Contemporary Art Yaoundé, Cameroon
Bergen International Performance Festival, Bergen, Norway
Live Action Goteborg Festival, Goteborg, Sweden
Live Art for Born Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013
Miami Performance International Festival, Miami Beach, Florida
Uprooted/Fake Nations Festival, Helsinki, Finland
LIVE Bienale of Performance Art, Vancouver, Canada
Intermedia Festival, Gdansk, Poland
Artist in Residence, Palacio das Artes, Porto, Portugal
Rapid Pulse Festival, Chicago, US
Point in Time Collective Exhibition, Aqua Carré Berlin
Collective exhibition, Time to Pretend, Harare, Zimbabwe
2012
7a11d, festival of performance art, Toronto, Canada
The Pornography of Everyday Life, 7th Berlin Biennial, Berlin
X-Choreographers, Tanz im August, Berlin
RAVY Biennial, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Blauverschiebung 5, Kub Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
Paersche, performance art event, Cologne/Bonn, Germany
Extension Extra, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin
Go West Festival, Frankfurt, Germany
2011
Nomadic Settlers, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
Infraction Festival, Sete, France
Kontrapunkt Festival, Szczecin, Poland
24h Festival, Szczecin, Poland
Infraction festival, Venice, Italy
Colab Editions 3, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin
Blauverschiebung 4, Kub Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
Oh My god, Gallery 5 people, Berlin
Performer Stammtisch, Berlin
From me to you Festival, Berlin
Verão Azul Festival, CCL, Lagos, Portugal
2010
Project Brand New, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Home Sweet Home Festival, Werkstatt der Kulturen, Berlin
ExtensionSeries 5, Grimmuseum, Berlin
Appointment, Performance project with the collaboration of Yingmei Duan, Hotel25, Berlin
M5-Differential Festival, Galerie Nord, Berlin
Plot in Situ Festival, Acud Theater, Berlin
Men Only, Kunst Fabrik, Berlin
'The Powers of Art', AlexTV, Berlin
2019
2022
2023
2024
Published Texts
Text / Not all memory metaphors are archival, Liveart.DK, Copenhagen, 2024
Text / The troubled How's and Why's of memory, Inter Art Actuel, Montreal, Canada, 2022
Text / Whose Stories are Cast in Bronze? / FREEZE! Challenge the Hierarchy: Research, Artist, User!, SIMBAS, 2019
Text (Prolog) / Navigating The Un-navigated, John Court Life and work, 2017
Text / Mirrors of Wood, Performance Art Bergen publication, Bergen, Norway, 2016
Text / Memory with Capital H, Cacao Europa, 2015
Chef-editor / CO-LAB Editions Performance Program, Berlin, print Edition, 2014
Text / Where is Performance Art?, CO-LAB Editions Performance Program, Berlin, 2014