[ENG] [SPA]
Dandara Catete, born in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, lives and works in Madrid, Spain.
Dandara explores poetic readings of the daily life, using elements from the domestic environment and the routine. Her works explore themes such as habitational rights, affective architecture, gender and home politics. Her production focuses on sculpture and installation, although she also works with painting, video and performance. Her research is based on the material quality of things, re-signifying them and investigating their symbolic aspects.
She graduated Wesleyan University (CT – USA) with Honors in Art Studio in 2015, where she was awarded the Jessup Prize for Promise in the Field of Visual Arts. She attended the School of Visual Arts Parque Lage (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and participated in the research group of the Comunidad de Madrid, En los márgenes del arte: Ensayando comunidades [In the margins of art: Rehearsing communities] in 2019, as well as attending residencies at Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto (Biella, Italy) Tabacalera Cantera (Madrid, Spain) and Budesstaat residency at Salzburger Kunstverein (Salzburg, Austria).
She has participated in several group shows in the United States, Brazil and Spain, and occasionally works as a curator, and was the founder and Creative Director of the Jardim Suspenso Art Residency and Festival, an open-air contemporary art and music event (2011-2016) held in forested areas of Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, she curated the exhibition Latin Reconquista: La colonia contraataca [Latin Reconquista: The Colony Strikes Back] (2018), showcasing Latino artists in Madrid, and Arquitectura de barrio (2024), about the historical memory of Puente de Vallecas, the working class neighborhood where she lives. Since 2023, she produces and hosts a cooking/interview show with artists who live and work in Madrid.