María Sainz Arandia
10 - 17.05.2021

María Sainz Arandia was in residence at INSTITUTO, in the framework of her participation in Porto’s Photography Biennial.

“The exhibition Cities in the City brings together works by Carlos Barradas and María Sainz Arandia — registers of community initiatives in the field of social and environmental justice, in Porto and Valencia, that explore the potential for the sustainability of public space and the poetics of the relationships that emerge from it as inclusive and regenerative acts of resistance.” - as published in the biennial's website.

On May 14, INSTITUTO hosted a talk around the exhibition, opening that same day at São Bento Metro Station, with participants María Sainz Arandia, Carlos Barradas and Joana Graça (INSTITUTO). 

Bio
María Sainz Arandia (1978) holds a bachelor in Fine Arts from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, and a technical degree in Photography and Artistic Photography from EASD. 

Her work is mainly focused on exploring the relationship between human beings and their environment through image, using a broad perspective that questions the boundary between reality and fiction. She is interested in the construction of new meanings, departing from what we see, and that often goes unnoticed.

Since 2009 she has worked with photography in different frameworks. She co-founded the collective and photography school efedePhoto, and the contemporary photography magazine VA!, where she continues to work in project coordination and graphic editing. Her work was recognised in festivals and competitions in Spain and Portugal, among other countries.

She developed photography projects with risc and social inclusion groups in collaboration with entities like Fundación CEPAIM or CREAP (Centro de Referência Estatal de Atención Psicosocial). She is currently finalizing a masters in Cultural Management, focusing on culture and mental health.