JOÃO PAULO SERAFIM (Paris, France, 1974) works and lives in Lisbon. Serafim graduated in Photography and Fine Arts from Ar.Co, school where he teaches since 1998, at the Department of Photography. In 2005 completes the Photography Course of the Gulbenkian Criatividade e Criação Artística Program, while in 2008 attends the History of Art course at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He is also a tutor at the 2nd Course of Photography of the Gulbenkian Criatividade e Criação Artística program. In 2005 won the Purificacíon García Award. Since 2005 is developing the project MIIAC – Museu Improvável Imagem e Arte Contemporânea, a fictional museum based in an iconographic research from a personal collection, constructed along the life of the artist. MIIAC, composed by photography of diverse sources and typologies, as well as extensive bibliography, materializes virtually or through exhibitions in different spaces, combining personal and collective memories. This research also extends to museum functions focusing on the backstage like archives and libraries, reflecting about the organization, processing and qualification process of visual information. Since 2008, João Paulo Serafim has been collaborating as well in theatre plays and performance pieces.
Exhibits regularly since 1998, the following solo shows are highlighted: Cosmos, Galeria Baginski, Lisbon (2015); A Colecção é uma forma prática de memória (Arquivos do MIIAC), Galeria Baginski, Lisbon, (2011); Museu em construção , Galeria Baginski, Lisbon (2009), O Museu Improvável, Centre Culturel Gulbenkian in Paris, France, travelling to the Museu Blanes in Montevideo, Uruguay (2008); Je t’aime moin non plus, Galeria Baginski, Lisbon (2005). The following group shows are highlighted: Unplace, online exhibition, curated by António Pinto Ribeiro and Rita Xavier Monteiro (2015); Lei de Ohm, at Museu da Electricidade, Lisbon, curated by Maria do Mar Fazenda and Filipa Valladares (2014); Sincronias: Artistas Portugueses na Colecção António Cachola, no MEIAC, Badajoz, Spain (2013); MNAA: Olhares Contemporâneos, after the artistic residency in Fundação EDP, at the Museu National de Arte Antiga, curated by Maria do Mar Fazenda and Filipa Valladares ; Génesis: Colecção António Cachola, no MACE de Elvas (both in 2012); Labirintos: Roads to Whatever, curated by Leonor Nazaré, CAM – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2011); A Culpa Não é Minha, curated by Eric Corne, at Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon (2010); Da outra margem do Atlântico: alguns exemplos de fotografia e vídeo português, at Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2010);Substance, Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2008);Concurso Purificación García, Ciclo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, Spain (2006); 50 fotógrafos portugueses, Fundação de Serralves, Oporto (2002). His work is represented in the following collections: Colecção António Cachola, Elvas; Centro de Arte Moderna – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; BES-Art, Lisbon; Fundação PLMJ, Lisbon; Banco Privado, Lisbon; Colecção Purificacíon Garcia, Spain.