about
Carlota dos Santos (b.1992, Porto, PT)
carlotacfsantos@gmail.com
Website in development, please refer to: instagram: @carlotacfsantos https://vimeo.com/carlotadossantos
biography
Carlota dos Santos is a Portuguese director, visual and performance artist based in London. Coming from a background in dance, fashion, fine art, and performance, the artist’s work exists in the spaces between Theatre, Fine Art, and Performance Art
The human being, as both a medium and a research tool, unfolds the core of Carlota’s practice. There is a celebration of the human body within itself and its environment, resulting from a perpetual process of investigation and questioning of human nature. Carlota’s work unfolds through the question of how we speak the unspeakable in art. Materiality and physicality are stretched and approached through animate and inanimate bodies present in her work, and large quantities of materials are usually brought to the artist’s live practice. Carlota’s work comes into being as it exists in its full actuality, through a process where the real is made real. Some of the artist's work includes Un.being (2020), Absent Matter (2020), There Once I was, There I Will Always Be (2021), A Thousand Shoes (2021), Tempo (2022) in collaboration with Cornelis Joubert, and Porto Seguro (2023)
The artist has recently graduated with a master’s degree in Performance Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins, in London while challenging the boundaries of her artistic practice as the founder and artistic director of THE LAB.YRINTH, - a project that encourages an encounter between art and fashion
education
2021 - 2023 MA Performance: Design and Practice
Central Saint Martins - UAL, London UK
2019-2021 MA Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies
Central Saint Martins - UAL, London UK
2012 - 2015 BA FASHION DESIGN
ESAD - Escola Superior de Artes e Design - Porto, PT
2010 – 2012 Dance Course
Tring Park School for the Performing Arts (former Arts Educational) - Tring, Hertfordshire, UK
work experience
January 2023 – Present, THE LAB.YRINTH – Porto, PT & London, UK Founder, Creative and Artistic Director
October 2022 – Present, NETHER – London, UK Founder, Director Working on a new personal project/b rand that will merge Theatre, Dance, Fine Art and Fashion (to be launched soon)
February 2019 – December 2022, PROF – Porto, PT Art and Movement Direction (remote position from London, travelling when needed)
July 2018 – November 2018, STEPHEN WEBSTER – London, UK Graphic Design & Visual Research
February 2018 – July 2018, NUTRI HEROES - London, UK Brand Design & Photography
December 2016, ALL SAINTS, London, UK Photo Studio internship
January 2016 – March 2016, EMILIA WICKSTEAD, London UK Photography internship
additional experience
Royal Academy of Dance exams – Grade 2 to Advanced level
Horton technique training with Alex Frei, Arts Educational, Tring, Hertfordshire, UK
Dance Improvisation intensive workshop with Max Cookward and Magnus Westwell, House of Mass, London, UK – July 2021
Butoh Workshop with Marie Gabrielle Rotie, London, UK – October 2021
Dance-Theatre intensive workshop with Athina Vahla, London, UK - May & June 2022
Post-Dramatic Stage intensive workshop with Oleg Mirochnikov, London, UK – May & June 2022
Jasmin Vardimon intensive workshop, Kent, UK – July 2022
Itch - production – Pleasance Theatre, London, UK - July 2022
Post-Modern Theatre and site-specific performance workshop with Andrea Cusumano – Polverigi, Italy –October 2022
Theodoros Terzopoulos method training with Kenny Lai – London, UK – October 2022 to March 2023
Tempo - Collaborative piece with Cornelis Joubert – Co-creation, Co-direction, Co-production, and Performance - Platform Theatre, London, UK – July to November 2022
Porto Segur o - Creation, Direction, and Choreography - Platform Theatre, London, UK – October 2022 to March 2023
performances / exhibitions
THE LAB.YRINTH x IHG, collaborative installation at THE LAB.YRINTH physical store, Porto PT – May 2023
When you are looking at me, by Diweilong Shi, group performance, Studio Theatre at Central Saint Martins, London UK – April 2023
Porto Seguro, by Carlota dos Santos, creation, direction, and choreography, Platform Theatre, London UK –March 2023
Macbeth, Act 1 to 5, by Kenny Lai, group performance, first witch role, Platform Theatre, London UK – March 2023
Memory, by Ruby Antonowicz-Behnan’s, group performance, Studio Theatre at Central Saint Martins, London UK
February 2023
And these shoes will be my body, video performance, Detritus Live Art at Tension Fine Art Gallery, London UK –November 2022
Tempo, Collaborative performance with Cornelis Joubert, Platform Theatre, London UK – November 2022
Macbeth – Act 1, by Kenny Lai, first witch role, Platform Theatre, London UK – November 2022
Terrain, direction, PROF, Gerês PT – April 2022
Oh Bitch, you’re Weary, duet, Crypt Theatre, London UK – March 2022
Fluxus, duet, Space for Fiction, Berlin GE – March 2022
Cluster Photography and Print, solo performance, Oxo Tower, London UK – March 2022
OPSIS, site-specific public performance, Kings Cross Park, London UK – December 2021
What is the ground, solo performance, Slash Arts Boat Gallery, London, UK – November 2021
Humanism, group exhibition, solo video performance, The Holy Art Gallery, Athens, GR – September 2021
A Thousand Normals, solo performance, Tension Fine Art, London, UK – August 2021
Utopia, virtual group exhibition, solo video performance, The Holy Art Gallery, London, UK – July 2021
Final, not Over – again, solo performance, Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London, UK – May 2021
Corpo, Oficina Cobalto, photographic documentation of a solo performance, Porto, PT – May 2021
SELL-OUT, Windows Gallery, Central Saint Martins, April & May 2021
A Thousand Shoes Residency, solo research project and performance, St Luke’s Community, London UK –March to May 2021
Homeward Bound, solo performance, Alexandra Park, London, UK – November 2020
I promise you, solo performance, MA Interim Show, Apiary Studios, London, UK – March 2020
Big Space Exhibition, solo performance, The Street, Central Saint Martins, UAL, London, UK – February 2020
Mind the Mind Gaps, solo performance, 202 Gallery, Central Saint Martins, UAL, London, UK – February 2020
TATE EXCHANGE Sale with Central Saint Martins, Tate Modern, London, UK – January 2020
solo exhibitions / shows
A Thousand Shoes – Entre live performance, Haggerston Park, London, UK – May 2021
Porto Seguro, solo creation, Platform Theatre, London UK – March 2023
nominations / awards
And these shoes will be my body, solo performance, MullenLowe NOVA Awards Nominated, 2021
And these shoes will be my body, solo performance, Maison/0 This Earth Awards Shortlisted, 2021
ENTRE, solo creation performed with dancer Sara Gil, MullenLowe NOVA Awards Nominated , 2021
ENTRE, solo creation performed with dancer Sara Gil, Maison/0 This Earth Awards Shortlisted, 2021
Un.being, solo performance, The Holy Art Gallery, Utopia exhibition shortlisted, 2021 features
Living Body (2020), solo performance, featured on Au Courant Vol 5 issue “On Reflection”. Available at https://www.aucourantstudio.com/store/Au-Courant-Vol-05-p183968709
Un.being (2020), solo performance, featured on @theholyartgallery Instagram page, August 2021. Available at https://www.instagram.com/p/CSG6_jRt_CN/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Between the Between (2020), video performance, featured on NO ISSUE, Issue N.0. May 2021. Available at https://www.no-issue.com/inhabited-environments
Portuguese Women Artists Instagram account feature, @portuguese_women_artists, March 2021 Available at https://www.instagram.com/p/CMAU7RwFnFO/?utm_medium=copy_link
To heal (2020), solo performance, featured on Central Saint Martins Instagram page, @csm_news, March 2020
Available at https://www.instagram.com/p/B9jwZV_Aq5f/?utm_medium=copy_link