PAST EDITIONS INTERVIEWS
GUEST MENTORS
CAPITÃO ARTIST RESIDENCY
Catarina Mel
Catarina Mel is a curator and cultural producer based in Porto, Portugal. She is the founder and director of CAPITÃO Artist Residency, an interdisciplinary programme supporting contemporary art practices through residency, exhibition, and public programming.
Her work focuses on curatorial practice, moving image, and ecological research, with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary collaboration and critical approaches to art and environment. She is currently part of the 2026 cohort of the Postnatural Independent Program (PIP) at the Institute for Postnatural Studies.
In parallel, she works in film production as a production director on independent projects. She has collaborated with artists and institutions across Portugal and internationally, developing projects that engage with exhibition-making, public programmes, and research-based formats.
Mentor, 2024 and 2025
Her work focuses on curatorial practice, moving image, and ecological research, with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary collaboration and critical approaches to art and environment. She is currently part of the 2026 cohort of the Postnatural Independent Program (PIP) at the Institute for Postnatural Studies.
In parallel, she works in film production as a production director on independent projects. She has collaborated with artists and institutions across Portugal and internationally, developing projects that engage with exhibition-making, public programmes, and research-based formats.
Mentor, 2024 and 2025
Genevieve Barton
Genevieve Barton is a curator, researcher, and writer based in London. She is currently Assistant Curator, International Art at Tate Modern where she works on major exhibitions and collection displays, expanding the museum’s representation of artists from Europe and the international diaspora.
Recent projects include A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography (2023), Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and The Blue Rider (2024), the display on Mari Katayama, and Emily Kam Kngwarray (2025). Upcoming exhibitions include Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography (October 2026).
Prior to joining Tate, she worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum and in galleries in the UK and abroad. Her research focuses on feminist art practices and the relationship between the body, protest, and art.
Mentor, 2024 and 2025
Recent projects include A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography (2023), Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and The Blue Rider (2024), the display on Mari Katayama, and Emily Kam Kngwarray (2025). Upcoming exhibitions include Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography (October 2026).
Prior to joining Tate, she worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum and in galleries in the UK and abroad. Her research focuses on feminist art practices and the relationship between the body, protest, and art.
Mentor, 2024 and 2025
Giulia Deval
Giulia Deval is an artist and researcher whose work explores the political and phenomenological dimensions of voice, focusing on trans-specific and transcultural dynamics of vocal sound and the auditory biases that shape credibility and authority.
Her practice spans performance-lectures, video essays, concerts of imaginary characters, and audiovisual installations and workshops for voices and magnetic tapes.
Giulia has presented her work at Café OTO (London), Hangar.org (Barcelona), BOZAR (Brussels), Jazzorca (Mexico City), OGR (Turin), and Centro Pecci (Prato), among others.
She is currently a PhD candidate at the Accademia Albertina of Turin / Politecnico delle Arti of Bergamo and a recipient of the LYDIA Prize (Fondazione Il Lazzaretto & PAC Milan) and MOVIN’ UP grants from the Italian Ministry of Culture.
We were honoured to host her at CAPITÃO Artist Residency 2025 for her workshop REASONS WHY I HATE MY VOICE, a collective exploration of listening, phonation, and the intimacy of the human voice.
Mentor, 2025
Her practice spans performance-lectures, video essays, concerts of imaginary characters, and audiovisual installations and workshops for voices and magnetic tapes.
Giulia has presented her work at Café OTO (London), Hangar.org (Barcelona), BOZAR (Brussels), Jazzorca (Mexico City), OGR (Turin), and Centro Pecci (Prato), among others.
She is currently a PhD candidate at the Accademia Albertina of Turin / Politecnico delle Arti of Bergamo and a recipient of the LYDIA Prize (Fondazione Il Lazzaretto & PAC Milan) and MOVIN’ UP grants from the Italian Ministry of Culture.
We were honoured to host her at CAPITÃO Artist Residency 2025 for her workshop REASONS WHY I HATE MY VOICE, a collective exploration of listening, phonation, and the intimacy of the human voice.
Mentor, 2025
Irene Campolmi is an Italian-born, Copenhagen-based curator, art historian, and researcher working across decolonial practice, performance, and art–science intersections. Since 2011, she has developed experimental curatorial programmes spanning exhibitions, performances, public art commissions, and cross-disciplinary research. Her work draws on queer and feminist theory to challenge dominant narratives in art history, positioning curating as a critical, political, and speculative tool for rethinking how knowledge is produced and shared.
She currently holds a dual role as Senior Curator at MAPS – Museum of Art in Public Spaces and Head of Arts & Science Initiatives at DARK Cosmology Centre, where she develops new models for artist–scientist collaboration.
With over fifteen years of experience, she has curated projects internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, TANK Museum of Contemporary Art, MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Mattress Factory, and The Power Plant, among others. From 2019 to 2023, she was Head of the Art Programme at Enter Art Fair.
Mentor, 2024
Valentine Umansky is a curator and author currently based at Tate Modern, London. She is also a Board Member of the Édouard Glissant Art Fund.
Between 2015 and 2020, she lived and worked in the United States, collaborating with the International Center of Photography, MoMA New York, and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.
Her recent curatorial projects include installations by Belkis Ayón, Dineo Seshee Bopape, and Rosa Barba (Tate), an exhibition dedicated to Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, and Confinement. Politics of Space and Bodies (Cincinnati).
Co-curator of the 2018 LagosPhoto Festival, Valentine also collaborated with Iheanyi Onwuegbucha (CCA Lagos) on a major project dedicated to modern and contemporary Nigerian art.
Mentor, 2025
She currently holds a dual role as Senior Curator at MAPS – Museum of Art in Public Spaces and Head of Arts & Science Initiatives at DARK Cosmology Centre, where she develops new models for artist–scientist collaboration.
With over fifteen years of experience, she has curated projects internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, TANK Museum of Contemporary Art, MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Mattress Factory, and The Power Plant, among others. From 2019 to 2023, she was Head of the Art Programme at Enter Art Fair.
Mentor, 2024
Valentine Umansky is a curator and author currently based at Tate Modern, London. She is also a Board Member of the Édouard Glissant Art Fund.
Between 2015 and 2020, she lived and worked in the United States, collaborating with the International Center of Photography, MoMA New York, and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.
Her recent curatorial projects include installations by Belkis Ayón, Dineo Seshee Bopape, and Rosa Barba (Tate), an exhibition dedicated to Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, and Confinement. Politics of Space and Bodies (Cincinnati).
Co-curator of the 2018 LagosPhoto Festival, Valentine also collaborated with Iheanyi Onwuegbucha (CCA Lagos) on a major project dedicated to modern and contemporary Nigerian art.
Mentor, 2025
Mentoring sessions have the aim of developing the projects presented
by the participating artists.
Mentors will have the opportunity to study the proposals in depth beforehand and then discuss aspects of the productions with the participating artists.