Filipa César

Filipa César (Oporto, 1975) is an artist and filmmaker, living and working in Berlin. She holds a degree in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon, a postgraduate diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and a master's degree in Art in Context from the University of the Arts in Berlin (UDK).

Her artistic practice questions the porous relations between fiction and documentary, between politics and the poetics of the moving image, taking an interest in their production, conservation and circulation devices.  Since 2011, she has been carrying out extensive interdisciplinary research into the history and memory of the Guinea-Bissau liberation movement, giving rise to a constellation of films, installations, exhibitions, seminars and publications, in collaboration with artists, researchers and activists. The project to restore, digitalize, and disseminate Guinea-Bissau's first audiovisual archives stands out, in close collaboration with the filmmakers Sana na N'Hada, Flora Gomes and the Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art in Berlin. At the same time, she directed the short films Embaixada (2011); Cacheu (2012); Conakry (2013); Sol Miné (2014); Transmission from the Liberated Zones (2016); her first feature film Spell Reel (2017); Sunstone, co-directed with Louis Henderson (2018); and the film installation Crioulo Quântico (2019).

The book Time Place Matter Voice. Luta ca caba inda. 1967-2017 (Archive Books, 2017) documents and deepens this process, which is also the object of her PhD in Artistic Studies at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Universidade Nova of Lisbon, since 2013. 

She was granted the União Latina award in 2003, BES Photo Award 2009, Best Film Award - Short Film Festival, Vila do Conde (2015), SESC Videobrasil Art Collection Acquisition Award (2017), Honorable Mention - San Sebastian International Festival (2017), Afield Fellowship (2018-19, with Sana at N'Hada), among others. She has regularly exhibited her work at important institutions and events such as the 29th São Paulo Biennial; Manifesta 8 in Cartagena; 67th Berlinale; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Jeu de Paume, Paris; SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin; Tensta konsthall, Stockholm; Mumok, Vienna; Contour 8 Biennial; MoMA, New York; Modern Art Centre - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; Tate Modern, London.

She has her work represented in private and public collections, both in Portugal and abroad. 

CB, outubro 2020