Marcio Carvalho Portugal, b. 1981

Márcio Carvalho is a Portuguese-Angolan artist and researcher whose practice explores the relationships between autobiographical and collective memory, identity, history and public space. Carvalho draws on the heritage of two distinct geographies, cultures and epistemological and belief systems to investigate the complexities of how individual and collective memory are constructed, transmitted and transformed.

His work examines public life, archives and acts of remembrance, considering their biological, cultural and social dimensions. Working across a range of media, including drawing, painting, photography, film, installation and performance, he develops artistic proposals that seek to rethink the role of public space in shaping a more inclusive and representative collective memory. Through collaborative and participatory artistic methodologies, he engages different communities and groups of citizens in reinterpreting the historical narratives and memories of cities, creating spaces for dialogue in which individual experiences can contribute to the construction of a shared history.

A central aspect of his practice is the questioning of the traditional conception of the archive as a fixed and static repository of information. Instead, Carvalho proposes understanding memory and the act of remembering as social, discursive and cultural practices, continually produced and transformed through collective participation. His projects therefore seek to establish public space as a living, open and participatory archive, in which memory and history remain creative, ephemeral, continuous and necessarily unfinished processes.

Throughout his career, Carvalho has participated in artistic events and projects across five continents, collaborating with artists, curators and local communities. His participation in biennials includes the Berlin Biennale, the Curitiba Biennial, the Thessaloniki Biennale and the RAVY Biennale in Yaoundé, Cameroon. His work has also been presented at institutions such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, MUCEM in Marseille, the Goethe-Institut in Zimbabwe and the Museum of Africa in Turin, as well as at several Camões Institutes, including those in Berlin and Brasília.

Márcio Carvalho holds a PhD in Performing Arts and the Moving Image, specialising in Performing Arts, from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, where he was awarded the degree with Distinction and Honours.