Carla zaccagnini
Carla Zaccagnini (1973) is a visual artist and writer, sometimes a curator, who during the past seven years has dedicated most of her time to art education. She was born in Buenos Aires, raised in São Paulo, is now based in Malmö and working in Copenhagen. This in-between position –both in terms of geographic (dis)placement and in relation to the fields of art making, writing, curating and education– defines her vantage point, her way of seeing, and her (broken) language. Zaccagnini’s conceptually driven practice is a continuous process of inquiry, which can solidify in a variety of material results –from printed text to film, sculptures, and installations. For many years, she has been developing research-based projects investigating how invisible power structures or struggles are made visible; what forms they assume when becoming visible; and how these forms are present in our daily lives and imagination. Thus, by recontextualizing existing objects, analysing recurrent images, and deconstructing persisting narratives, the artist questions the limitations and bias of language and representation, and the fallibility and partiality of perception and understanding, challenging naturalized ways of thinking, telling, seeing, and depicting and opening the possibility for other ways of imagining and acting in the world.
Carla Zaccagnini has a BA in Art Education from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, São Paulo (1991-95) and a Master is Visual Poetics from the University of São Paulo (2001-04). She has been the Professor of the School of Conceptual and Contextual Practices, at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, since its foundation in 2017. Zaccagnini has exhibited in institutions such as CRAC Alsace (Altkirch, 2022), Kadist (San Francisco, 2021), Havremagasinet Länskonthall (Boden, 2020), Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2019), Röda Sten Konsthall (Göteborg, 2018), LACMA (Los Angeles, 2017), Kunsthal KAdE (Amersfoort, 2016), Malmö Konsthall (2015), Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2015), Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2014) and MNCA Reina Sofía (Madrid, 2014). She has had solo shows at Krognohuset (Lund, 2024), Amant (New York, 2022), MUNTREF (Buenos Aires, 2019), Museo Experimental el Eco (México DF, 2018), SixthyEight Art Institute (Copenhagen, 2017), Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2015) and Van Abbemuseum (Eindoven, 2015), among other institutions.
Zaccagnini’s work is represented by Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, and 2112 Gallery, Copenhagen, and is featured in the collections of Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Malmö Konstmuseum, Tate Modern (London), Solomon Guggenheim Museum (New York), MUSAC (León, Spain), Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, among others.
Recent publications include Cuentos de Cuentas (Berlin: K. Verlag, 2022), Brasil: país do futuro, um livro sobre o livro. (Valencia: Editorial Concreta, 2016), and (Elements of Beauty. São Paulo, 2012).
