ARTIST:

Mário Macilau

Purification of the Soul (The Zionist Series)
Mário Macilau

Mário Macilau’s ambitious path towards becoming a social documentary photographer began with a symbolically charged instance. At the age of fourteen, while walking down Vladimir Lenin Avenue in Maputo he shot his first image with a borrowed camera, capturing a woman selling cassava in a street market. From that site, marked by the name of a political leader whose revolution was imported to Africa, his personal utopia took him to travel the world as a professional photographer. The artist’s photographs, which unveil the human condition under the oppression of injustice and the hardship of poverty, have been exhibited internationally.

My Toy ( The Zionist Series )
Mário Macilau

Sharing concern with many of his contemporaries, the artist’s labour series comprising of images of hard working conditions in cement plants or dump sites of Nairobi and Maputo, proposes a fresh approach to the burning issue of alternative economies, which is at the center of contemporary socio-economic debates.

Peace (The Zionist series)
Mário Macilau

As in the film City of God, where a young photographer strives to record the beauty and terror of his environment and attempts to make a career to soothe the dystopia of underdevelopment, Mário Macilau is a vivid example of resilience and vision amid turbulent waters. 

Children of Jesus (The Zionist series)
Mário Macilau

Macilau embarks in long standing thematic essays, constructing a narrative that, by means of a certain epic realism, produces ambivalent images of arresting power, as they are simultaneously crude and beautiful, mesmerizing and heartbreaking.
His subject matter is found in African living conditions, social imbalance, environmental disaster and waste, all issues that overwhelm daily life in his city of birth, Maputo, where he continues to live.

Purification of the Soul (The Zionist series)
Mário Macilau

Mário Macilau’s ambitious path towards becoming a social documentary photographer began with a symbolically charged instance. At the age of fourteen, while walking down Vladimir Lenin Avenue in Maputo he shot his first image with a borrowed camera, capturing a woman selling cassava in a street market. From that site, marked by the name of a political leader whose revolution was imported to Africa, his personal utopia took him to travel the world as a professional photographer. The artist’s photographs, which unveil the human condition under the oppression of injustice and the hardship of poverty, have been exhibited internationally.

My Toy (The Zionist series)
Mário Macilau

Sharing concern with many of his contemporaries, the artist’s labour series comprising of images of hard working conditions in cement plants or dump sites of Nairobi and Maputo, proposes a fresh approach to the burning issue of alternative economies, which is at the center of contemporary socio-economic debates.

Peace (The Zionist series)
Mário Macilau

As in the film City of God, where a young photographer strives to record the beauty and terror of his environment and attempts to make a career to soothe the dystopia of underdevelopment, Mário Macilau is a vivid example of resilience and vision amid turbulent waters.

Text © Gabriela Salgado

Children of Jesus (The Zionist series)
Mário Macilau

Macilau embarks in long standing thematic essays, constructing a narrative that, by means of a certain epic realism, produces ambivalent images of arresting power, as they are simultaneously crude and beautiful, mesmerizing and heartbreaking. 
His subject matter is found in African living conditions, social imbalance, environmental disaster and waste, all issues that overwhelm daily life in his city of birth, Maputo, where he continues to live.

Save Your Cart
Share Your Cart
0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop

    Search the Saatchi Gallery website

    Thank you for your enquiry!

    Your message was sent and one of our Admin team will respond as soon as possible.

    If you have an urgent question, please call our front desk on 020 7811 3070.

    For more information on how we store and use your data please view our privacy policy here. You can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time by clicking on the links below the emails we send you.

    Essential Information Before Your Visit:
    Click Plan Your Visit for full information on upcoming closures.

    Register for email updates
    Be the first to hear about the latest Saatchi Gallery exhibitions, events, offers and news