João Laia

João Laia is Artistic Director of the Department of Contemporary Art of the Municipality of Porto. Previously, he was the chief curator for exhibitions at Kiasma – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland. Recent projects include Masks (2020) and 10000 Years Later Between Venus and Mars (2017-18) at Oporto City Hall Gallery; In Free Fall (2019), CaixaForum, Barcelona; Vanishing Point (2019) at Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon; Drowning in a sea of Data (2019) and Transmissions from the Etherspace (2017) at La Casa Encendida, Madrid; foreign bodies (2018) at P420, Bologna; H Y P E R C O N N E C T E D (2016) at MMOMA – Moscow Museum of Modern Art; Hybridize or Disappear (2015) at MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art in Lisbon. Laia co-curated the 19th and 20th editions of Videobrasil (2014–18) in São Paulo. Other exhibitions, performance programs and screenings were held at Parque Lage (Rio de Janeiro) Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Xcèntric / CCCB (Barcelona), Videoex (Zürich), Calouste Gulben, Kurzfilmtage – International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and Cell Project Space, DRAF – David Roberts Art Foundation, Delfina Foundation, South London Gallery and Whitechapel Gallery (all in London). In 2012-13 Laia attended the post-graduate research program CuratorLab at Konstfack, Stockhom and in 2014 was part of the curatorial residency of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin. He edited A Multiple Community (SESC publishing — São Paulo, 2018), co-edited Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s monograph Spiral Forest (Mousse — Milano, 2018) and published in magazines such as Flash Art, frieze, Mousse, Spike or Terremoto. In 2021 together with Valentinas Klimašauskas, Laia will curate the 14th edition of the Baltic Triennial at the CAC – Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius.