MAURICIO DIAS & WALTER RIEDWEG
[Dias: 1964, Brazil / Riedweg: 1955, Switzerland]
Dias & Riedweg includes Mauricio de Mello Dias (b. 1964, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Walter Stephan Riedweg (b. 1955, Lucerne, Switzerland), who have worked together since 1993 to make collaborative and interdisciplinary public art projects, videos, and performances.
Dias studied in the School of Fine Arts at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro from 1982 to 1986. After traveling through Europe, he took courses in engraving at Schule für Gestaltung Basel in Basel, Switzerland. He subsequently studied at the Printmaking Workshop in New York. Riedweg’s formal education focused upon theater and music; he studied at the Musik Academie in Lucerne, Switzerland; the Accademia Teatro Dimitri in Verscio, Switzerland; and participated in several workshops at the Performance Studies Department at New York University (NYU).
Together, Dias & Riedweg combine video, ethnography, and performance art to tackle social and political issues; in their projects, the artists examine human subjectivity as it is conditioned by ideas of nationhood and mediated by contemporary technology. Based in Rio de Janeiro, the duo often looks to the conditions of that city’s favela cultures to consider how a city is constituted. Much of their production is based upon social exclusion. Using the tools of both documentary and fiction, the duo make works which narrate experiences of social alienation and distance, and they consider these experiences as immigrants themselves: “Perhaps the condition of the immigrant, as someone who brushes up against difference at every turn, is almost the ideal condition for poetic creation,” notes Riedweg.
Dias & Riedweg have had their work shown in numerous important solo exhibitions, including … and it becomes something else, Americas Society (AS), New York City, New York, USA (2009); Dias & Riedweg – Nada Absolutamente Nada, Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015);
The Other begins where our senses meet the world, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB), Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (2002); Funk Staden and Voracidad Máxima, documenta 12, Kassel, Germany (2007); Amparo y Desamparo,FOTOGRAMA:13, Montevideo, Uruguay (2013); Sentidos sem direccão e outras direcções de sentido, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon, Portugal (2009); CameraContato, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil (2018); Em Casa, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Histórias Mestiças, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil (2014); Dias & Riedweg, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland (2000); Von Früh Bis Spät, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland (2017); Juksa, Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF), Svolvær, Norway (2006); Devotionalia, Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCO), Geneva, Switzerland (1996);Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma (MACRO), Rome, Italy (2017); Estranhamente Possível, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAM-Bahia), Salvador, Brazil (2012); and Possible Archives, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark (2013).
Dias & Riedweg’s works are represented in several major collections including Colección Bergé, Madrid, Spain; Frac Île-de-France, Le Plateau, Paris, France; Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt, Basel, Switzerland; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland; Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico; Museu Coleção Berardo - Centro Cultural Belém, Lisbon, Portugal; Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Spain; Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM), Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio), Brazil; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California, USA; National Museum Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK; Nykytaiteen museo Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland; and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil.
2018
Dias & Riedweg, Cameracontato, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo
2017
Von Früh Bis Spät, Museum of Art Lucerne, Switzerland
Galerie Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporain, Paris, France
Museo Di Arte Contemporaneo De Roma (MACRO), Rome, Italy
2016
Dias & Riedweg: Weg Zurück Da, Kuntsraum Artyourself, Sursee Switzerland
2015
Dias & Riedweg: Peñas de Pena, Auditorium Roma, Italy
Dias & Riedweg, Nada Absolutamente Nada, Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2014
Histórias Mestiças, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Histórias Frias e Chapa Quente, Casa França Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil
Little Stories of Modesty and Doubt, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland
2013
Amparo y Desamparo, Fotograma 13, Montevideo, Uruguay
Possible Archives, Kunsthal Nikolaj, Copenhagen, Denmark
2012
Até que a rua nos separe, Centro de Artes Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Corpo Santo, Museum der Prinzhorn Sammlung, Heidelberg, Germany
Estranhamente Possível, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
2011
Dias & Riedweg: Peñas de Pena, CajaSol, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain; CajaSol, Seville, Spain
2010
Cold Stories, Solo Show at FIAC Art Fair, Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporain, Paris, France
Dias & Riedweg: Peñas de Pena, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
The Periphery of your Eyes, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico
Che, Project Room, PINTA London, Galería Filomena Soares, London, UK
2009
Paraísos Possíveis, Dias & Riedweg, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Sentidos sem direccão e outras direcções de sentido, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon, Portugal
… and it becomes something else, Americas Society, New York, NY, USA
Moving Truck and Recent Works, Argos, Festival des Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Chaque chose sa place, autre place autre chose, Galerie Bendana-Pinel, Paris, France
2008
Elsewhere at the same time, Kunsthalle Oslo, Norway
Of The Universe of the Ball, Arco Solo Projects 2008, Galeria Filomena Soares, Madrid, Spain
Funk Staden, Vleeshal Middelburg, Holland
2007
Funk Staden and Voracidad Máxima, Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany
Promenade, Frieze Outdoor Solo Project, Galeria Filomena Soares, London, UK
Gravities, Museu da República, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2006
Les Valises pour Marcel, Miami Basel Art Fair, Galeria Vermelho
Juksa, Lofoten International Art Festival, Fugløya, Norway
2005
The Unfinished World, Espace Le Plateau, Commissioned by Festival d'Automne à Paris, Paris, France
Cabra Criada (Grown Beast), Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil
Sambing Camera, Villa Arson, Nice, France
2004
Possibly speaking about the same, Kiasma Museum of Contempory Art, Helsinki, Finland
2003
Possibly speaking about the same, Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain
2002
The Other begins where our senses meet the world, Centro Cultural Banco Do Brasil, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
2000
Dias & Riedweg, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland
1997
Devotionalia, Stroom, The Hague, Netherlands
1996
Devotionalia, Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
Devotionalia, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Centro Cultural Belém, Coleção Joe Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal
Colección Bergé, Madrid, Spain
Frac Ile–de–France — Le Plateau, Paris, France
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Kunstkredit Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland
Kunststiftung Heute, Bern, Switzerland
Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland
Musée National d’art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Spain
Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM), Coleção Pedro Barbosa, São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro (MAM), Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK
Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil
Videothek, Basel, Switzerland
