Bio

María Castellanos and Alberto Valverde (uh513), began working together as a duo in 2009. María Castellanos is an artist and researcher, with a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Vigo. Alberto Valverde is an artist and technologist with experience in system design, creation of interactive environments, multimedia and robotics.

They joint practice focuses on the relationships between human beings and machines, and in recent years they have centred their research on hybridisations between cyborgs and wearables as a paradigm of the extension of human sensorial capabilities.

Their work has won awards including the recent VERTIGO STARTS, a prize granted under the aegis of EU-Horizon 2020, an initiative led by Centre Pompidou and IRCAM , Paris, and the Fraunhifer.Gesellschaft, Germany, to foster collaboration between art practitioners and R&D projects.

In 2016 the artists had a research residency at SoftLab at Sliperiet, Umea Universitet (Sweden), and were awarded the Antón Scholarship for Sculpture Research from the Museo Antón in Candás (Asturias). Also in 2016 they were nominated for the STARTSPrize' 16 at Ars Electronica, Linz (Austria) and the Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo (Japan).

Their work has been featured in a number of exhibitions, the most recent being Human Factor, organised by Ars Electronica in DRIVE Volkswagen, Berlin, 2016. Also in 2016 they took part in the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz and the Bozar Electronic Art Festival in Brussels. In 2017 they took part in Postfuture Journey, Athens Digital Art Festival (Greece) and in the Look Forward Fashion Tech Festival at La Gâite Lyrique Centre in Paris.
 

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>> ON-GOING EVENTS

>> Cyborg Garden. Matadero. Madrid. Spain [until 06.10.2019]
>> Eco-Visionaries. LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial. Gijón. Spain [until 26.10.2019]
 

>> AWARDS AND GRANTS

2018
2º Prize EAC. XVIII Encuentro de Arte Contemporáneo. Diputación de Alicante. Spain

2017
Winning project  VERTIGO STARTS. European Project EU-Horizon 2020. Call for artist in residence
Jury Selection. 20th Japan Media Arts Festival. Tokyo

2016
Anton Grant to sculpture creation and researching. Anton Museum. Candás, Asturias. Spain
Winning project of Paseo Project 2016. Fundación ZCC. Etopía Center for Art & Technology. Zaragoza. Spain
SoftLab Residency. Sliperiet.Umeå University. Sweden
Nomination at STARTS Prize'16. Ars Electronica. Linz. Austria
Best Paper Award. Technarte 2016. International Conference of Art and Technology. Bilbao. Spain

2015
Winning project of Next Things 2015 – Conducta. LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial and Telefónica I+D. Spain

2012
AlNorte Grant 2012. Diario El Comercio. Gijón. Spain
FibArt 2012. Beca FIB Residence. Benicasim

2011
Tentaciones Prize 2011. Estampa Art Fair. Madrid. Spain

>> SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2019
Open Environmental Kit. Laboratorio 987 MUSAC. León. Spain
Environment Dress 2.0. Mobile Week. Disseny Hub Barcelona

2018
The Plants Sense at ICT 2018: Imagine Digital - Connect Europe. Vienna. Austria
Eco-Visionaries. Hek. Haus der elektronischen Künste. Basel. Switzerland
STARTS. CEBIT. Europe's Festival for Innovation and Digitization. Hannover. Alemania
Especulacións Utópicas. Colexio de Fonseca. Santiago de Compostela. Spain

2017
Exhibiton Next Things_Next Starts. LABoral Centro de Arte. Gijón, Spain
Ensayo y error del posthumano. Anton Museum. Candás, Asturias. Spain
LookForward Fashion Tech Festival. . Musee La Piscine. Roubaix France and  La Gâitè Lyrique, París. France
Postfuture Journey. Athens Digital Art Festival. Atenas. Grecia

2016
Bozar. Electronic Arts Festival 2016. Brussel. Belgium
Ars Electronica Festival 2016. Post City. Ars Electronica. Linz. Austria
Human Factor, organized by Ars Electronica at DRIVE - Volkswagen Group Forum in Berlin. Germany
Avilés Data City. La Factoría Cultural. Avilés. Spain

2015
Materia Prima. Experiments on digital art & science. LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial. Gijón. Spain
Process. CMAE. Avilés. Spain

2014
Reactions/Interactions. Verge Gallery. Sydney. Australia

2012
La Biblioteca de Babel. Espacio Líquido Gallery. Gijón. Asturias. Spain
La mirada perdida del observador incómodo. 9thw13 Gallery. A Coruña. Spain
MEM Festival. Arropame Gallery. Bilbao. Spain

2011
Tentaciones 2011. Estampa Art Fair. Madrid. Spain
ArteSantander 2011 Art Fair. Santander. Spain
Clorofila 3.0. Valey, Cultural Center. Asturias. Spain

2010
SineDie. Texu Gallery. Oviedo. Spain
Kaldarte 2010. Caldas de Reis. Pontevedra. Spain
Pontevedra Biennial. Museo de Bellas Artes de Pontevedra. Spain
Process as Paradigm. LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial. Gijón. Spain
Arte con fecha de caducidad. LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial. Gijón. Spain

2009
Doll-is. 7º Anniversary MARCO Museum. Vigo. Spain
 

>> LECTURES / PRESENTATIONS / TALKS

2018
>>  Methodology and process in the creation of technological body interfaces. DATART. Faculty of Fine Arts. UCM. Madrid. Spain 19 October 2018
>> Round Table: "Conexiones:aproximaciones a los retos medioambientales desde el arte y la ciencia" LABoral. 20 September 2018
>>  Interfaces tecnológicas corporales. "1º Congreso Internacional Mujeres: Artistas, Tecnólogas". UPV. Valencia. Spain. 27 June 2018
>>  The Plants Sense. STARTS Residency Day. IRCAM. Centre Pompidou. París. 15 June 2018

2016
>>   Environment Dress. The App Date Fashion. Espacio Fundación Telefónica. Madrid. Spain

 

>> WORKSHOPS

2019 Development of body-worn technological interfaces. MUSAC. León
2019 Taller Mutante. Matadero Acción Mutante. Matadero. Madrid
2018 Introducción a la Creación de Interfaces Tecnológicas Blandas. LABoral. Spain
2017 Workshop at Encuentros de Juventud de Cabueñes. From Net.Art to Cyber.Art
2017 Workshop Humans & Machines. auLAB. LABoral Centro de Arte. Gijón. Spain
2017 Art and technology project consulting workshop for Fine Arts students. University of Vigo. Spain
2016 Workshop Wearables: Garment as interface. Debut 2016. ESDEMGA. University of Vigo. Spain
2016 Workshop "Body Technological Intefaces" at WinterLab 2016. LABoral Centro de Arte. Spain
2015. Laser technology at textil laboratory. Fine Arts Faculty. University of Vigo. Spain
2010. Workshop Doll-is. CAMON. Caja Mediterraneo. Madrid. Spain