Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (b. 1977, Barcelona, Spain) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Steegmann Mangrané’s practice encompasses a wide range of media, including film, sculpture, sound, gardens and drawing. Using self-imposed systems, Steegmann Mangrané creates environments that undermine the traditional boundaries between nature and culture or subjects and objects, proposing instead a new paradigm that acknowledges that everything is entangled and interdependent. Recent solo exhibitions include Hangar Bicocca, Italy (2019); Institut d’art contemporain de Villeurbanne, France (2019); Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2019); and Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Portugal (2017–2018).
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané presented a newly commissioned outdoor installation at Crown Street Park, and a film at Bluecoat. Steegmann Mangrané’s new outdoor installation, La Pensée Férale (2021), brings into question our position in the world – eroding the Western conceptions of being that separate the world into opposing dualisms, for example, nature and culture. The tree trunk at its centre is a scanned replica of a Pau Rei, a native tree of the Brazilian Mata Atlántica, imbedded with the eye of an Indian pariah dog from Bangladesh. Surrounded by a newly planted forest of black beeches, the work raises questions about subjectivity and our attitude towards our environment, reinforcing that nature is not without perception or feeling.
Presented in the UK for the first time, Steegmann Mangrané’s film Fog Dog (2020) is the artist’s first foray into cinematic storytelling. Premiered at the Dhaka Art Summit 2020, the film is a documentation of daily life at the Institute of Fine Arts of Dhaka. Through different narratives – of colonial violence, bodily knowledge, environmental degradation and the stray and phantom dogs which live at the Institute – the film highlights how multiple worlds are interconnected.
Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial with Art Fund support, and the assistance of Bury Art Museum. Additional support received from Acción Cultural Española (AC/E).
Our full exhibition programme is now closed, but visitors can still enjoy art in person at FACT and Bluecoat until August & September. Plan your visit here.
