Artur Barrio

Who is Artur Barrio?

Artur Barrio is an artist who lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Much of his work consists of installation pieces that create interaction with the public. Barrio engages the viewer as participant in his art, often without their knowledge that it is art in which they are participating. By doing so, the participant can have an experience not removed from life but rather incorporated into it. He wants to encourage contact with all of reality including the discards of life such as garbage. He wants us to recognize that this reality is just as real if we can see past the symbolic meanings we attach to these objects.

He was born in Porto, Portugal in 1945. In 1952, he spent six months in Angola “where he discovered the African culture.” He then moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1955, returning to Portugal during the Portuguese revolution in 1974. In 1975 he moved to Paris and then in 1981 to “Amsterdam with a grant from BBK that is extended until 1984.” Currently, he lives successively in Amsterdam, Aix-en-Provence and Rio de Janeiro. Barrio exhibits his work internationally.