Paulo Raposo has, since 1990, developed a constante activity in the fields of sound art and intermedia art, focusing on the use of new image technologies, and the conception and programming of interactive software used towards live performances, of which he was pioneer in Portugal. Since 1994, his work has been punctually endorsed by the Ministry of Culture – IPAE, Instituto de Arte Contemporânea (Institute of Contemporary Art), Clube Português de Artes e Ideias (The Portuguese Club of Arts and Ideas), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento (The Portuguese-American Foundation for Development), etc, having it been exposed in France, United States of America, Germany, England, Holland, Italy, Spain and in the Baltics, besides Portugal. Along with Carlos Santos, Raposo founded, in 1991, the sound project “vitriol”, that received honorable mentions and critics by the specialized national and international media, having also been a guest artist and spokesperson hosted by prestigious institutions and festivals such as ICMC (International Computer Music Confereneces) or Sonicarts Network.
In 1996 Paulo Raposo won the Ernesto de Sousa scholarship with the project “Rizomas” (scholarship given by the Portuguese-American Foundation for the Development, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), a project made during an artistic residency at the Rensaessler Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York State, and presented to the public at the Experimental Intermedia Foundation Festival in New York city. His work “rizoma nocturno”, was selected by the Bourges Music Festival “Synthése” in 2000. While in Berlim Raposo participated in the event “Xenakis” – Remix”, an homage to the important music and architect, organized by “Podewil”, Berlim. The artist has also performed and collaborated with several artists such as Janek Schaefer, Jason Kahn, Kaffe Mathews, Marc Behrens, Zbigniew Karkowski, John Grzinich, Matt Rogalski, Carlos Zíngaro, Christopher Murphy, Koji Asano, Sara Kolster, among many more. His work is found in more than 15 CDs and DVDs.
Nationally, he has worked with a big diversity of plastic artists, designers and choreographers, directed the sound installation “Arcanae Rumore” presented in the Museum of Electricity (1998) and created the soundtrack for numerous videos produced by Rosa Filmes (1994-1995).
In the meantime, he also taught different workshops on video art, programming and the application and practice of new technologies for artistic means (CEM, Ligar Comun, ISPA, FBAUP, Universidade do Minho, etc). In 2001, the artist created “Sirr”, a label that has as its objective to promote and endorse sound art of innovating character, national and international, having edited for this goal, over that 20 CD’s that earned acclimation from specialized critics.
In 2002, he created the ensemble “desintegração”, constituted by four to six musicians that used the laptop as an instrument, not only to generate sound as well as produce images and graphics in real time, the edited and later registered project was “Permutation Cages” presented in Centro de Arte Moderna da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Center of Modern Art of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation). Still in 2002, Paulo Raposo, was mentor and founding member of “Granular” association (where he worked as director for 2 years), a non-profit association dedicated to the development and promotion of portuguese experimental art.
In 2003 and 2004, he lived between Lisbon and New York, performing and collaborating with several international artists. His intermedia work, “Húmus” involves actors in a sound and image interactive piece. In 2003, “Húmus” received the support of Instituto das Artes (The Arts Institute) and was presented at Lugar Comum (Common Place). His work was also exposed, in 2004, at the Festival de Arte Sonora (Festival of Sound Art) commissioned by Brandon Labelle for the Overgaden gallery of Copenhaga’s Contemporary Art Institute (Instituto de Arte Contemporânea de Copenhaga).
Also in 2004, Raposo was selected by the media Air program promoted by NIFCA – Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art (Instituto Nórdico de Arte Contemporânea). In 2005, the artist presented several projects at Serralves Foundation (Fundação de Serralves), ICMC – International Computer Music conferences, in Barcelona (Conferência Internacional de Música Computacional, em Barcelona), as well as The Sonorities Festivals, in Belfast (os Festivais Sonorities, em Belfast), Con-T-mpo (Girona) and Correnti Sonori (Italy), etc.
