Conference Cycle Diana Policarpo | Great Artists on Campus #1 (Porto)

Diana Policarpo (b. 1986, Lisbon) is a visual artist and composer who lives and works between Lisbon and London. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses sound, sculpture, film, drawing, installation, electroacoustic music and multimedia performance, establishing a distinctive intersection between artistic and scientific research.

Raised in a household of musicians, Policarpo studied music at the National Conservatory before pursuing studies in fine arts and sculpture at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design das Caldas da Rainha. She completed a Master of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths College, London (2010–2013), remaining in the United Kingdom for a decade before returning to Portugal in 2019.

Her work, political in nature, investigates popular culture, health, gender politics and interspecies relations, frequently examining ecological systems and extraction landscapes. Central to her practice is the exploration of voice, percussion and rhythm, which she employs to create characters in recordings and performances. Policarpo approaches rhythmic sound structures as tactile material intertwined with the social construction of esoteric ideology, examining relations of power, vulnerability and empowerment within capitalist contexts.

Recent solo exhibitions and screenings include Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; CAM-Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Manifesta 15, Barcelona; McaM, Shanghai; Biennale Gherdëina; Kunsthall Aarhus; Helsinki Biennial; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Ocean Space, Venice; CRAC Occitanie, Sète; Kunsthall Trondheim; MAAT, Lisbon; Kunstverein Leipzig; Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; and Whitechapel Gallery, ICA and LUX Moving Image in London.

Notable projects include “Death Grip” (MAAT, 2019), developed during an artistic residency in India, and “Nets of Hyphae” (Kunsthall Trondheim), both investigating the parasitic fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis and the global consequences of its extraction. She received the Fundação EDP New Artists Award (2019) and the illy Present Future Award (2021).