Bios
Isabel and Patricia began working together in 2005, when they formed the collective Grupo DOC (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) with other artists in Rio de Janeiro. The collective organized several group exhibitions such as the nine editions of the Nanoexhibition in five countries (2005-2009), Fake (2007) and Despacho (2009) in independent spaces and university galleries. In 2010, they were invited by curator Isabel Portella to conceive a proposal for the Duplas series, at Galeria do Lago/Museu da República. Throughout 2011, they undertook a residency at the Jardim da República, where “Banco de Tempo” was born, presented as an exhibition in 2012 and whose research was consolidated in the homonymous book, launched in 2015.
Since then, the artists have begun a collaborative creative process in which they seek to unite the history of the exhibition space with archival research. Historical, autoethnographic, and social critique. In this confluence, they create works in photography, text, video, installations, and participatory works that seek to dialogue with the memory of the place, the communities that occupy it, and the material traces that manifest themselves throughout the research process.
The work is distinguished by its character of care, listening, and attention to themes that often escape official narratives. Mãe Preta is the duo’s second project, started in 2015, resulting in a decade of exhibitions, publications, and collective actions.
ISABEL LÖFGREN (Stockholm, Sweden, 1975) Holds a PhD in Media and Communication from the European Graduate School, a Master of Fine Arts from the Postgraduate Program in Visual Languages (EBA/UFRJ), and a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts from Smith College, USA. She is an Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University, Sweden. An artist and researcher, she works with visual arts including drawing, photography, video, digital media and installations in public spaces with a keen eye on the circulation of images between different media and between cultures related to the question of memory and affective and material history. In her artistic practice, she establishes a dialogue between theories of the gaze based on studies on mediatization and visual justice in relation to issues of gender, race, urban and environmental issues.
PATRICIA GOÙVEA (Rio de Janeiro, 1973) Holds a PhD in Contemporary Arts Studies (PPGCA/UFF), a Master’s degree in Communication and Culture in the area of Communication Technologies and Image Aesthetics (ECO/UFRJ), a specialization in Photography and Social Sciences (UCAM/RJ), and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication (ECO/UFRJ). An artist and researcher, she works with photography, video, writing, installation, and urban intervention, focusing on the expansion of temporalities based on reflections on the body, nature, the work of care, and motherhood as a matter of thought and the erasures of memory operated by “official histories.” In 2025, she released her first work in cinema, the feature film “Itacoatiaras,” co-directed with the filmmaker from Manaus, Sergio Andrade. She was one of the founders of “Agência Foto In Cena” (1995/98) and Ateliê da Imagem (1999/2019), an independent cultural space and school that trained 2 generations of photographers and stood out as a center for research, teaching and image promotion in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, where she acted as artistic and pedagogical director, coordinator and curator of more than 70 exhibitions, seminars and events.
