Born into a multiracial family with both Angolan and Portuguese parents, Marcio Carvalho shares ancestors from two distinct geographies, with distinct epistemological and belief systems, and it is upon these that he engages with the notions of autobiographical and collective remembrance. His work examines public life and archives, autobiographical and collective memory, focusing on the acts of remembering and their biological, cultural and social influences. Either through drawing, film, installation or performance, Marcio Carvalho’s art attempts to create ways of public engagement, where the historical and memorial realities of the city are challenged and jointly created by groups of citizens and their memories. His artistic projects attempt to separate memory and the act of remembering from the traditional idea of archive – fixed repository of information – to give memorial activity the status of social activity, discursive and cultural practice, thus ensuring that memory and the processes that creates it remain a creative, ephemeral, continuous and unfinished process.
Carvalho holds a Master degree in performing arts from HZT/ UDK Berlin and a Master degree in Visual Arts from ESAD, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. He showcase his work and collaborated with communities in 5 continents.
