Diana Policarpo

Critical text

The works of Diana Policarpo (b. 1986, Lisbon) generate synaesthetic perceptions based on the interaction of different media: light, sound and temperature contribute to modify the environment and to create a suspended dimension in space and time. Relying on a total sensorial inclusion, the artist reveals symbolic structures and anthropological dynamics shared by apparently distant cultural places and contexts, ranging from the bond between human and natural to the complexity of systems of communication, from ritual behavior to the economic and affective value assigned to objects. Light, video and audio installations become artistic expedients that have the function of revealing essential and ancestral components of humankind, starting with the relationship with our own species and the surrounding environment. Proceeding by analysis and the resulting synthesis of the most complex human phenomena, Policarpo unveils the dynamics underlying oppression, capitalist exploitation and gender discrimination.

Text by Ilaria Gianni