2. My artistic practice is primarily focused
on collective technologies and practices
of remembering and how they influence
individualandgroupmemoryofpastevents.
Some of my recent projects research the
influences of history and storytelling
on the formation of autobiographical
and collective memory, and the reasons
why some narratives became part
of history while others are excluded.
I am interested on the different modes
of public commemorations, specially
mnemonicsignsandsystems,thatweengage
with on a daily basis, to embody, represent
and reenact specific narratives of the past.
A special focus is granted to mnemonic
signs and systems – monuments, statues,
books, films, photographies, photo-albums,
exhibits and other symbolic structures -
that commemorate the influences of history
on the formation of autobiographical and
collective memory. To complement my
work and research on collective memory
formation I am driven to understand the
influences of storytelling on our individual
and collective bodies. Some of my last works
have researched on different social groups -
such as my family - and through qualitative
interviews and collaborative videos and
performances, I have collected and act
upon their autobiographical memories of
different events, namely the experience
of colonization and displacement. Both
this latter processes try to examine and act
upon biological, social and political factors,
responsible for disrupting the formations
of individual and collective narratives.
Carvalho works with installation,
photography, video and performance
participating in exhibitions and festivals
in 4 different continents (Europe, North
America, Africa and Latin America).
He is the co-founder and curator of the
performance art program COLAB editions,
in Berlin, he was the founder and art director
of the artist residence program Hotel25
in Berlin and he initiated “The Powers
of Art”, the first international TV Show
dedicated to showcasing a crossing between
performing arts and paranormal activity.
Biography
3. Impossible
chonologies
2012
The work impossible chronologies
renders science and art/performance
practices together through the
topic of memory. Through body
based work, through formal or
punk lectures, through drawings
or transfers of data from one field
to the other, the performance
and its documentation became
clearly an enormous performative
experiment in which memory is being
tested, debated and experienced
through possible and impossible
relations, through collective
data and subjective experience.
- How performance art demonstrates an
investigation on memory as embodied
experience within the theatre context?
- How can my work stage an experience
of memory instead of representing it?
-Isthecontrastbetweenartandsciencethe
pointwherememorycannavigatethrough
subjective and collective experience,
allowing Márcio and Christoph, the
artist and the scientist, to embody
their knowledge in the same setting?
- How does scientific knowledge operates
within the fictional context of theatre
and how does it become performance?
- How can I rethink memory and
performance in a theatre context by using
non theatrical knowledge or methods?
Produced by HZT -
Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum
Tanz, Berlin
In collaboration with Christoph
Ploner (Neuroscientist, co-director
of neurology department, Charite,
Berlin
Methodologies/Strategies/Tactics used
– Creating bridges between science
and art/performance by assuming their
differences and commonalities
– Converting performance into a
scientific experiment and scientific
experiments into performance
– Highlighting the relation between
me and Christoph, as professionals but
specially as human beings that experience
memory on a daily basis
– Talk about memoryas an embodied
experience
4.
5. reconsolidation
machine #1, 2014
(sound installation)
Memory reconsolidation allows you
to adopt the cerebral representations
of your past to the demands of your
actual context. With the passage
of time, memories may drift from
an initial vantage point towards
representations that are more
congruent with the concepts that
you have of yourself or that society
inflicts on you. Legal, religious
and psychotherapeutic rituals may
support reconsolidation of those
memories that resist this process.
Reconsolidation Machine is an art and
research project by the neurologist
and neuroscientist Dr. Christoph
Ploner and the artist and independent
curator Márcio Carvalho. The project
investigates how technologies and
practices of remembering have
been influencing individuals and
groups to remember and/or forget
past events; more specifically the
ways by which autobiographical
or collective memory have been
reconsolidated by biological, social
or political memory disruptions. This
first phase of the project proposes to
think about memory reconsolidation
through the confessional object.
The act of confession exist in
people’s everyday life, between
friends, family, etc. Yet, religion
ritualized confession, becoming a
performative/narrative behavior,
in which the person acknowledges
thoughts or actions considered sinful
or morally wrong within the confines
of its own religion. The confessional
can be considered a technology that
Inside the research and exhibition
project Sidewise in Time, at the
Mapping Annual Congress,
Congress Center Hamburg,
gives a performative dimension
to remembering and forgetting.
Memories they don’t disappear
through the action of confession.
Instead they change. By designing the
confessional, church created a way
to re-consolidate the memories of a
believer by erasing guilt and regret.
In collaboration with Christoph
Ploner (Neuroscientist, co-director
of neurology department, Charite,
Berlin
3
7. RECONSOLIDATION
MACHINE #2, 2014
Reconsolidation Machine was an art and
research project by the Neurologist and
Neuroscientist Dr. Christoph Ploner and
the artist and independent curator Márcio
Carvalho. The project investigates how
technologies and practices of remembering
have been influencing individuals and
groups to remember and/or forget past
events; more specifically the ways by which
individual or collective memory have been
reconsolidated by biological, social or
political memory disruptions.
Consolidation is a neurological process that
involves gradually converting information
from short-term memory into long-term
memory. Classical views proposed that
once consolidated, memories are stable and
resilient to disruption. However, this view
has been challenged by the findings that
established memories become labile when
recalled and then require another phase of
protein synthesis in order to be maintained.
Therefore, it has been proposed that each
time a memory is reactivated it again
undergoes a process of stabilization, named
reconsolidation.
The first phase of the project was presented
at the We presented 3 confessional
sculptures each one with 4 audio tracks
(“confessions”) - a confession of a murderer,
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
Giving Contours to Shadows
Project
a excerpt from the movie I Confess from
Hitchcock, a perspective of a psychiatrist
on a confession of a sociopath and an exerpt
of an interview of the famous HM patient.
The aim was to challenge scientists to listen
the audio tracks and to give feedback on
questions such as: 1. Is guilt a memory
problem? 2. Is confession a reconsolidation
technique? 3. Is salvation a cerebral
process?
The second phase of the project proposed
to think about memory reconsolidation by
combining the confessional as a ritualistic
and religious object and Bruegel’s Topsy
Turvy World painting, situated at the
1
In collaboration with Christoph
Ploner (Neuroscientist, co-director
of neurology department, Charite,
8. Photos
1. 2. and 3. Performance, Gemäldegalerie
4. Instalation, Congress Center Hamburg
Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. The act of
confession exist in people’s everyday
life, between friends, family, etc. Yet,
religion ritualized confession, becoming a
performative/narrative behavior, in which
the person acknowledges thoughts or
actions considered sinful or morally wrong
within the confines of it’s own religion. The
confessional can be considered a technology
that gives a performative dimension to
remembering and forgetting. Memories
they don’t disappear through the action
of confession. Instead they change. By
designing the confessional, church created
a way to re-consolidate the memories of a
believer by erasing guilt and regret.
Bruegel’s Topsy Turvy World painting
contains a literal illustration of idioms and
aphorisms of 16th century Flemish life.
There are approximately 112 identifiable
proverbs and idioms in the scene, that
were meant to illustrate human stupidity
and foolishness; although Bruegel may
have included others which cannot be
determined. Ploner and Carvalho are
interested in working with some of
Bruegel’s illustrations of such proverbs,
specially the ones that can be related to the
exhibition concept of Giving Contours to
Shadows exhibition and its will to “activate
a long-term dialogue and discourse on
the possibilities of deliberating on history,
pre-writing history and even sequestrate
history”.
One shears sheep, the other shears pigs;
Shear them but do not skin them; What can
smoke do to iron?; To always gnaw on a
single bone; The die is cast; To look through
one’s fingers or To confess to the Devil
are some of the proverbs that Ploner and
Carvalho are planning to work with.
5. and 6. 16 channel sound Instalation,
Gemäldegalerie
2 3
4 5 6
9. (im)possible
(hi)stories
We started the process by getting to know
one another’s work and discussed that
before decidig what to do in our Floating
Platforms project. Quite soon it became
clear that, if I had a philosophical and
normative basis on which I founded my
work, so did Márcio. The philosophical –
and in my interpretation also political –
consideration and sophistication behind
Márcio’s work was impressive. This, in
my view, had to mean that I did not claim a
1 position in the project as a scientist who
has established a pool of knowledge in a
particular field and that our collaboration
would be focused in examining and
presenting that particular field through
artistic methods. We needed to establish
a more equal point of departure. In other
words, genuine dialogue between art and
science was our goal.
My research has circled around the topic
of asylum seeking and agency for several
years, while Márcio was interested
in the selectivity of history, memory
and counter-narratives. The notion of
relationality was central for both of us.
In order to develop our collaboration in
practice, we started looking for points of
contact between our previous works. We
discovered our professional interest in
the stories of past generations within our
families and the way these stories have
shaped what, why and how we work (see
Väyrynen & Puumala 2015).
The topics on which we decided to focus
– histories, identities and presences –
emerged as a result of the collaboration
during which we invested deeply personal
and intimate stories in the project. This,
later on, was perhaps a factor in both of
us being so ambitious with the work and
in our willingness to do the best that we
could. It was also clear that the selected
In the framework of Floating
Platforms organized by New
Performance Turku Festival and
Aboagora Symposium
In collaboration with Eeva
Puumala (Political scientist)
10. themes were far too big and abstract to
tackle even somewhat comprehensively
within the timeframe that we had, so
we decided to focus on a topical societal
phenomenon: polarisation.
Our project took place at a time when
growing number of asylum seekers
had started to arrive in Finland and
polarisation between those who have
adopted a critical stance towards
humanitarian forms of migration and
those who see these movements more
favourably increased rapidly. Hence, we
wanted to see what kind of (im)possible
(hi)stories could be formed between people
who inhabit the same urban environment,
but who might not ever meet otherwise
than through our project. Was there a way
to find space for a dialogue in the heated
atmosphere? Could we think of presence
and relationality in a way that would not
succumb to predefined categorisations
and positions?
Creating (im)possible (hi)stories
Asylum seekers formed a group among
which we wanted to work during our
project. But with whom we should try
to make their stories meet? We wanted
to test the relations that could begin to
emerge between different kinds of stories
that belonged to different kinds of people
who lived in different phases of their lives
and in different conditions. Because both
of us had worked previously with our
grandmothers and thus acknowledged the
richness of experiences and insight that
arises with age, we decided to begin the
process by meeting with elderly people
living in Turku. Furthermore, we assumed
that the elderly and asylum seekers might
face similar challenges and experiences
of isolation and vulnerability in their
daily lives. Issues with health, rich – and
potentially difficult – life experiences and
uncertainty about the future were also
possible points of contact, and among
both groups it is rather common to live in
institutional circumstances.
Instead of asking what people thought
about particular issues, we decided to
work with memories. They seemed as a
neutral enough topic that did not invite
any specific questions to be addressed.
Inquiring after memories was also a
way not to position people in particular
categories with our questions and yet they
were something that all people have.
To what events is the most cherished
memory of your life related?
What is the most painful memory in your
life?
What do you think of your present
condition?
These were the three questions that
11. we asked from two elderly people and
one asylum seeker. We did not ask for
their names, nor any other personal
information. We presented ourselves,
the project that we were carrying out
and their willingness to participate in it.
Their answers took us by surprise. People
shared their memories of extremely
intimate moments and events willingly,
travelled back and forth in time with a
concentrated face, and did not shy away
from raising sensitive and even painful
topics.
We edited the stories in short narratives by
deletingourquestions,butkepteverything
else as it was brought up by the narrator.
We then took these short stories to other
people: lay Finns that we met by chance,
volunteers working with asylum seekers,
other old people and asylum seekers. The
short stories were read to people without
telling whose story it was and not giving
out any other background information
than what came up in the stories. Then,
we asked the listener to continue the
story that they just heard on the basis of
their life experiences either by finding
similarities or differences – or both. In
the third round of story collection, the
stories to which we asked people to relate,
consisted of the memories of two people.
Otherwise the process was the same.
From the researcher’s perspective, the
value of this kind of data collection was
in letting people decide what they told
and the themes that they addressed. The
process was characterised by intuition.
However, working on the basis of intuition
does not mean being unprepared or not
knowing anything. There needs to be an
understanding of the things that can be
addressed through the selected approach,
but yet it leaves space for the unexpected
or surprising and requires capacity to
improvise if the approach fails (see also
Cerwonka & Malkki 2007). In this sense,
the dialogic effort between art and science
was different from a ‘normal’ research
project. Here, the ‘research’ questions
were formed only after the data collection.
We had to think through doing and in a
sense reverse the ‘research’ process.
During data collection it became quite
soon obvious that surprising connections
between the stories began to emerge. This
taught us a lot about our own assumptions
and the ways in which our perception of
things shapes the way we address people
and the lines in which we think of their
presence in the society. For example, we
read the story of a young asylum seeker
boy to a volunteer of the Finnish Red
Cross, but as it turned out, the boy’s story
intersected much more with the story
of a 90-year old Finnish woman. The
story of the volunteer, in turn, had more
points of contact with a lay Finnish man
than with the stories of asylum seekers.
And the stories of the asylum seekers
whom we met had very little in common
besides the experience of dependency
and displacement. These connections that
we did not anticipate and those we had
assumedbutthatdidnotreallymaterialise,
forced me to think about the complexity
with which we position ourselves and how
multiple our belongings and identities are.
From the collected stories we drafted
thematic letters on longing, anxiety,
dependency, displacement, hope,
hospitality, persistence and stability. These
were the eight themes that arouse in many
stories. In order to avoid “conceptually
incarcerating” (see Soguk 1999) people’s
experiences and memories, one story can
appear in more than one letter on the basis
of the themes the narrator has included in
his/her story. Thus, nodes and points of
connection began to emerge among the
stories. In addition to the thematic letters,
we also drafted a single long letter, which
comprised the stories of all twelve people.
In the letters it is impossible for the reader
to tell where one story ends and another
begins, yet it is clear that there are many
people ‘writing’ the letter.
Retrospectively, I have come to
understand that the method that we
developed could be used to examine
how polarisation can un-happen. In
practice, the method enabled us to trace
the mobility of experience, the ways in
which we – without prior assumptions,
categorisations or perceptions – position
ourselves towards or against others. The
positioning happens only as we hear the
other person and try to understand to
whom we are exposed. Research-wise that
meantcreatingaspace–perhapsaNancian
interval – between art and science, their
practices and methodologies. Perhaps the
method that we coined does not quite fit
to either of the fields. It is an intervallic
method that was shaped by both art and
science, with neither having priority.
On the basis of the letters, we started
working on the presentation. We agreed
quitefastthatwewantedtoquestiontheself-
evidence of identities and the selectivity
with which histories, societies and people
are often described and presented. We
wanted to address the question of history
as a stable construction and illustrate the
multiplicity of connections that bodies
that inhabit the same city space have, even
though apparently there is no connection.
To describe this connectivity and to
describe the process of story collection,
the performance was called (im)possible
(hi)stories – a title that can be read in four
different ways.
A window of hope emerges. My dialogue
with most notably Márcio but also with all
the others who participated in the Floating
Platforms project, led me to think more
about the potential that collaboration
between art and science – or moving
beyond the separation – can play. For me,
the potential lies in challenging learned
scientific methods and ways of thinking
or maybe even the scientific apparatus
altogether. Can fundamental questions
that concern knowing and representation
as well as the methods and goals of science
be tackled through artistic practice? 6
What kind of potential does collaboration
entail in terms of our capacity to address
“subjugated knowledges” (Foucault 1980)
and in making the process of determining
research agendas more equal? These are
pressing questions for social sciences and
particularly for peace and conflict research
as the discipline has a strong inbuilt
normative element. Perhaps a dialogue
with art teaches us about our internalised
and learned ways of constructing meaning
in this world and offers a way to challenge
them or at least become aware of these
‘blind spots’.
12. EDUCATION
Feb 2011 - Mar 2013
Master Degree – SODA Performing Arts
UDK/HZT, Berlin, Germany
Sep 2004 - Jun 2006
Master Degree – Visual Arts University of
art and design (ESAD) Caldas da Rainha,
Portugal
Sep 2001 - Jun 2003
Bachelor Degree – Visual Arts University of
art and design (ESAD) Caldas da Rainha,
Portugal
GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2016
Goethe Institute, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon,
Portugal
2014
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon,
Portugal
2013
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon,
Portugal
2012
RAVY Biennial, Yaoundé, Cameroon
HAU - Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany
2010
Buda Kunstcentrum, Kortrijk, Belgium
Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Mousonturm, Frankfurt Main, Germany
2009
INOV Arte, DG Artes, Lisbon, Portugal
E.R.M. Wittemberg, Germany
2008
Avan’t Rue, Paris, France
CV
WORK (selection)
2016
A Meeting in turku in 2016, aboa vetus &
ars nova MuseuM turku, Finland
Borderline club Festival, tehdas theater,
turku, Finland
Ravy biennial, supported by goethe institue,
yaoundé, caMeroon
Blind spot project, berlin, beirut, tokyo,
bucharest, bergen, Fredrikstad
2015
Solo show, If My Grandmother Was A
Historian, Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin,
Germany
Thessaloniki Biennial, Thessaloniki, Greece
Curitiba Biennial, Curitiba, Brazil
Verbo Festival, Galeria Vermelho, Sao
Paulo, Brazil
Steirischer Herbst Festival, Graz, Austria
New Performance Turku Festival, Turku,
Finland
Peninsula Project, Embassy of Italy, Berlin,
Germany
Floating Platforms, Art and Science project,
Turku, Finland
2014
Individual Exhibition 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, United
States
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 GÖTEBORG Festival,
Gothenburg, Sweden
Live Art for Born Festival, Copenhagen,
Denmark
2013
Miami Performance International Festival,
Miami Beach, United States
Uprooted/Fake Nations Festival, Helsinki,
Finland
LIVE Bienale of Performance Art,
Vancouver, Canada
Intermedia Festival, Gdansk, Poland
Artist in Residence, Palácio das Artes,
Porto, Portugal
Rapid Pulse Festival, Chicago, US
Point in Time Collective Exhibition, Aqua
Carré, Berlin, Germany
Collective exhibition, Time to Pretend,
Harare, Zimbabwe
13. 2012
7a11d festival of performance art, Toronto,
Canada
The Pornography of Everyday Life, 7th
Berlin Biennial, Berlin, Germany
X-Choreographers, Tanz im August, Berlin,
Germany
RAVY Biennial - Rencontres d’Arts Visuels
de Youndé, Cameroon
Blauverschiebung 5, Kub Galerie, Leipzig,
Germany
Paersche, performance art event, Cologne/
Bonn, Germany
Extension Extra, Kunsthalle am Hamburger
Platz, Berlin, Germany
Go West Festival, Frankfurt, Germany
2011
Nomadic Settlers, Kunstlerhaus Bethania,
Berlin, Germany
Infraction Festival, Sete, France
Kontrapunkt Festival, Szczecin, Poland
24h Festival, Szczecin, Poland
Infraction festival, Venice, Italy
Colab Editions 3, Savvy Contemporary,
Berlin, Germany
Blauverschiebung 4, Kub Galerie, Leipzig,
Germany
Oh My god, Gallery 5 people, Berlin,
Germany
Performer Stammtisch, Berlin, Germany
From me to you Festival, Berlin, Germany
Verão Azul Festival, CCL, Lagos, Portugal
2010
Project Brand New, Project Arts Centre,
Dublin, Ireland
Home Sweet Home Festival, Werkstatt der
Kulturen, Berlin, Germany
ExtensionSeries 5, Grimmuseum, Berlin,
Germany
Appointment, Performance project with the
collaboration of Yingmei Duan, Hotel25,
Berlin, Germany
M5-Differential Festival, Galerie Nord,
Berlin, Germany
Plot in Situ Festival, Acud Theater, Berlin,
Germany
Men Only, Kunst Fabrik, Berlin, Germany
‘The Powers of Art’, Alex TV, Berlin,
Germany
CURATING
2012 - 2016
WHILE MOVING FORWARD ON TIME
Film Documentary
http://whilemovingforwardontime.
blogspot.de/
2016
CO-LAB Copenhagen
In collaboration with Liveart.DK
Copenhagen, Denmark
2014
Colab Editions – The Publication,
Retrospective and book launch – supported
by FRAME Finland, OCA Norway, Embassy
of Norway Berlin and Pro Helvetia
Switzerland, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin,
Germany
IPAC – International Performance Art
Convention, Glogauair artist-in-residence
program, Berlin, Germany
2012
Colab Editions 7:
Mind Pirates gallery
Invited artists: Olivier Foukua (Cameroon),
Mark Patrick Tchambou (Cameroon),
Nathalie Bikoro (Gabon), Willem Wilhelmus
(Netherlands)
Colab Editions 8:
Freies Museum, Berlin
Leena Kela (Finland), Tomasz Szrama
(Poland), Juha Valkeapää (Finland), Kimmo
Modig (Finland)
Colab Editions 9 and 10:
SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin
Jacques Van Poppel (Netherlands), Ieke
Trinks (Netherlands), Jelili Atiku (Nigeria)
and Lan Hungh (Taiwan)
TV Show, The Powers of Art 3 and 4, ALEX
TV, Berlin
2011
Colab Editions 1-6:
SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin
Invited artists: Alastair Maclennan
(Scotland), Nezaket Ekici (Turkey), Kurt
Johannessen (Norway), Ruth Feukoua
(Cameroon), Serge Olivier Fokoua
(Cameroon), Antoni Karwowski (Poland),
Andrés Galeano (Spain), Essi Kausalainen
(Finland), Magnus Logi Kristinsson
(Iceland), Márcio Carvalho (Portugal),
Maurice Blok (Netherlands), Stefan Riebel
(Deutschland)
2010
Founder adn Curator of the artist residence
Hotel 25, Berlin, Germany
Director and Curator of PLOT IN SITU,
Live art festival, ACUD Theater, Berlin,
Germany
Founder and Curator of the TV show ‘The
Powers of Art’, AlexTV Studios, Berlin,
Germany
