represented:
BILDHALLE Amsterdam
Willemsparkweg 134
1071 HR Amsterdam
BILDHALLE Zurich
Stauffacherquai 56
8004 Zurich
CONTACT
+41 44 552 09 18
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IBASHO GALLERY
Tolstraat 67
2000 Antwerp
CONTACT
+32 3 216 20 28
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THE PHOTOGRAPHERS GALLERY
16 - 18 Ramillies Street
London, W1F 7LW
CONTACT
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
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for further inquiries please contact:
+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)
2017 Docking Station / Belfast Photo Festival (UK)
ARTIST BOOKS
2021 4 a.m. — self-published, 500 copies
2019 Continuum — self-published & Bildhalle, 300 copies
2017 Searching for Mu — self-published, 200 copies
BOOKS
2020 Mukayu — the(M) éditions & Ibasho Gallery, 500 copies
2019 Amazônia — Alauda Publications & Bildhalle, 750 copies
2019 Ephémère — Edition Bildhalle, 800 copies
ACCOLADES (selection)
2022 The Best Dutch Book Designs of 2021 (NL)
2022 Finalist EI Photobook Award 2022 (PT)
2022 LensCulture, Favorite Photobooks of 2021 — selected by Laura Moya, Photolucida (US)
2021 Fisheye Photo Review (FR)
2020 LensCulture, Favorite Photobooks of 2019 — selected by Anaïs Lopez (NL)
2020 BJP — Notable Photobooks of 2019 (UK)
2019 Jury Top Selection, GESTE Paris (FR)
2018 Finalist Discovery Awards, Encontros da Imagem (PT)
2017 Window Of Wonder, Tipi Bookshop (BE)
2017 New Dutch Talent (NL)
2017 HARIBAN Juror’s Choice Award — selected by RongRong & Inri (JP)
2017 Artist Residence Winner Belfast Photo Festival (UK)
COLLECTIONS
Foam First Editions (NL)
International Center of Photography, NYC (US)
Danziger Collection (US)
Van Lanschot Art collection (NL)
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