Paul Cupido

represented:

BILDHALLE Amsterdam

Willemsparkweg 134

1071 HR Amsterdam

+31 20 808 8805

info(at)bildhalle.nl

BILDHALLE Zurich

Stauffacherquai 56

8004 Zurich

CONTACT

+41 44 552 09 18

info(at)bildhalle.ch

bildhalle.ch

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THE PHOTOGRAPHERS GALLERY

16 - 18 Ramillies Street

London, W1F 7LW

CONTACT

printsales(at)tpg.org.uk

thephotographersgallery.org.uk

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DANZIGER GALLERY

952 5th Avenue, Second Floor

New York, New York 10075

Bergamot Station, Unit B1

2525 Michigan Avenue

Santa Monica, CA 90404

CONTACT

info(at)danzigergallery.com

danzigergallery.com

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for further inquiries please contact:

hello(at)paulcupido.nl

+31 (0)6 4900 6805

Searching for Mu (2017, ongoing)

The idea of Mu goes beyond having to choose. In translation its meaning comes close to ‘does not have’. Searching for Mu — taking shape in photographs, film clips, sound and folded paper — is tantamount to a quest. I have journeyed nearly as far away from home as possible, nevertheless, a journey outward equally means an exploration of our inner selves. A journey inward searching for acceptance that life comes to an end, yet at the same time knowing that life is circular, starting over time and again.

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Synopsis

The photographic work of Paul Cupido (b. 1972, Terschelling, the Netherlands) revolves around the principle of mu: a philosophical concept that could be translated as ‘does not have’, but is equally open to countless interpretations. Mu can be considered a void, albeit one that holds potential.

Cupido’s ongoing photographic and cinematic experiment ‘Searching for Mu’ is at once a personal and universal odyssey of our fleeting existence in relation to the profound emotional experiences of love, time, and death. Instead of presuming to be documents, his photographs point to transcendent reflections of the soul and of the intermingling of the microscopic and macroscopic.

Artist Statement

I aim to engage with the world with wide-open senses. My work is about the magic moments of life as well as its inconveniences. I want to take pictures, while forgetting about the process of photography, until I’m saturated with an existential sense of life. Every step I take begins with the notion of ‘mono no aware’: the transience of everything, the gentle melancholy of things, being sensitive to ephemera.

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EDUCATION (selection)

2021 Masterclass w/ Machiel Botman, Amsterdam/Haarlem (NL)

2018-2019 Le Masterklass w/ Klavdij Sluban, Paris (FR)

2013-2017 Fotoacademie, Amsterdam (cum laude) (NL)

2016 Magnum Tokyo Workshop w/ Antoine d’Agata (JP)

2016 LFI Hamburg Workshop w/ Jacob Aue Sobol (DE)

RESIDENCIES

2022 Château Palmer (FR)

2019 Can Serrat (ES)

2018 LabVerde, Amazonia (BR)

2017 Docking Station / Belfast Photo Festival (UK)