Diogo da Cruz is an artist based in Lisbon and Munich. Hispractice relies on the use of technologies to imitate, re-articulate or re-imagine unchallenged structures and systems inwestern society. He works on long-term projects that are drivenby partially fictive scenarios. These fictive scenarios are oftenproduced from scientific findings and historical documentsreferring to past, present or future socio-politicalcircumstances, materialising itself as installations, sculpturaland video work.He received a BA in Sculpture from the FBAUL (2013) and aDiploma in Sculpture from the ADBK München (2016).
He participated in the ISP of Maumaus – Escola de Artes Visuais inLisbon (2016).His work has been shown at numerous exhibitions in Europe,Russia and Uruguay, including the solo exhibitions: “A shot inthe dark nights of absence” TUM Physics Department Munich2023, “our water will meet” Walk&Talk Azores 2022, “looking upfrom underneath” Forum Arte Braga 2021 and group exhibitionsin institutions such as: S1 ARTSPACE United Kingdom 2023,arthereistanbul in Turkey 2021, Serralves Museum in Porto 2019and Espacio de Arte Contemporáne in Montevideo-Uruguay2019. Da Cruz is assistant professor at the Academy of FineArts in Munich since 2018.
(This residency happended in partnership with Umbigo Magazine and ended with an exhibition at Forum Arte Braga)
Inasmuch as human beings seek answers for the unsolved questions of their lives deep within themselves, where only water can hold them, the Ocean depths hold all the misplaced and unresolved aspects of our civilisation’s colonial past atrocities. Going deep is a speculative action — both literally and metaphorically. Through his artistic research and practice, da Cruz shows us how depth and water are so intrinsically, biologically, historically, and economically connected within our body, the ocean that separates and connects our different geographies, and the financial capitalistic interest represented by that underwater mining.
Diogo da Cruz investigates this decentralised memory, lying deep in the waters that make up the oceans and our human bodies, inverting our vertical perspective — from the top to the bottom. Drifting, he explores new ways of thinking about life across physical, chronological, and geographical boundaries. By daring to imagine new connections between water and depth, he reflects on and suggests new forms of caring for the waters in our bodies and in the oceans, picturing them as vast mnemonic devices that remember who we were, who we are, and who we will be, both as individuals and as a community.
