Biography
Cristina Rodrigues was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1980. She lives and works in Manchester, United Kingdom, and owns art studios in this city and in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal. She is a chartered architect in both countries and holds a M.Phil in Art & Design from Manchester School of Art. Over the last four years she has lectured at the Manchester School of Architecture and at the Zhongyuan University of Technology, China.
Cristina is also a researcher and she has created and led two major international research projects in recent years, namely ‘DfD – Design for Desertification’ and ‘21st Century Rural Museum’. ‘DfD – Design for Desertification’ was created in response to the problems of desertification, depopulation and economic decline and it was developed in partnership with MIRIAD, Manchester School of Architecture, Idanha-a-Nova Municipality and UNESCO Geopark Naturtejo. It features Idanha-a-Nova as case study.
The ‘21st Century Rural Museum’, of which Cristina was also art director and curator, was created in 2012 and it has instigated rural regeneration by involving artists, designers and writers in a cross-border collaborative project. Through this itinerary exhibition the voice of rural generations has taken centre stage in major cities, drawing attention to key rural issues. Using photography as a research tool Cristina has captured moments and events in the daily lives of people in rural Portugal, particularly women. The resulting collection of photos - 'My Country Through Your Eyes' - and photo installation - 'The People’s Wall' - illustrate the demographic unbalance and its impact on the Portuguese economy and environment.
The plight of this rural world enduring human and economical desertification has inspired Cristina both as a researcher and as an artist.
Cristina’s art celebrates the role of women as keepers of cultural tradition who share their heritage with younger generations, ensuring it lives on. Her art installations tell the combined stories of these women and their communities. Through her art she brings this cultural wealth to the fore, and through her audiences she is relaying it across rural boundaries and beyond frontiers. Most of her art installations lend an artistic identity to objects which were previously merely functional or even obsolete. She takes them to a new level through her creative expression.
All art work created by Cristina Rodrigues emerges from her reflections on ethnographical research methodologies used to instigate an understanding of the contexts she represents in her installations.
Her exhibitions over the last years have been visited by hundreds of thousands of people across Portugal, China, Germany and the UK. Her exhibition at Guangdong Museum of Art alone was visited by circa 150 thousand people in April 2013.
Cristina Rodrigues exhibited in several renowned Museums, Monuments and Unesco World Heritage Sites such as: GDMOA, Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou, China (2013); MUDE, Museu do Design e da Moda in Lisbon, Portugal (2013); Idanha-a-Velha Cathedral - Unesco World Heritage site, Portugal (2013); Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal (2013); Zweigstelle Berlin, Germany (2014); Manchester Cathedral, United Kingdom (2014); Alcobaça Monastery - Unesco World Heritage site, Portugal (2015), Tatton Park Mansion, United Kingdom (2015) and, most recently, Municipal Museum Amadeo Souza-Cardoso, Portugal (2015); S. Clemente Palace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015) and Portuguese Pavilion in Seville, Spain (2015).
