Fernanda D’ Agostino: Mar, Mar e Mar

This display features new media installation work by 2023 Artist-in-Residence Fernanda D’Agostino. Titled “Mar, Mar e Mar,” the work is based on the poem of the same name by Portuguese poet Eugenio de Andrade in which he compares the sea to a woman and all of her moods, at times likening it to his mother and at other times to his lover. The performers in the piece were asked to respond to the same prompt: “Imagine you are the sea and you have an urgent message for humanity but can only speak with your body, hands, and face.” In the artist’s own words: 

“I’ve been working with scientists at the Ocean Observatory Institute at Oregon State University, a branch of NOAA, on Mar, Mar e Mar. Recently one of them spoke with me about science’s growing awareness of the critical role of symbiosis in natural systems, in actuality we really all are one with the natural world. That’s a big part of what I hope Mar, Mar, e Mar conveys.”

D’Agostino originally debuted this work for her residency at the Newport Art Museum through a large-scale projection on the exterior of the Cushing & Morris Galleries during a public evening event on October, 24 2023.

About the Artist:

Fernanda D’Agostino is a public art and new media installation artist based in Portland, OR. D’Agostino has exhibited nationally and internationally with video installation, large scale public art projects, and performance. Her work has been featured in numerous new media festivals, and exhibitions, and she strives to share what she has learned with others. In 2018 at the invitation of Curator Justin Hoover, she produced large-scale outdoor projection mapping works in San Francisco for the Untitled Art Fair and in Hong Kong in conjunction with Art Basel Hong Kong.

Her “Borderline” installations series was exhibited in 2018-19 at 1A Space Hong Kong, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, Open Signal, and Portland Art Museum. (all Portland, OR.) Her work has most recently been featured as part of Venice VR Expanded – a division of the Venice Film Festival and Venice Biennale. Her work is in the collections of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX); New York Public Library (New York, NY); and the Cyland Media Archive (St Petersburg, Russia). D’Agostino’s work has been recognized by the Flintridge Foundation; Bonnie Bronson Fellowship; Andy Warhol Foundation; Oregon Community Foundation; Ford Family Foundation; 4Culture TechSpecific Award; Sacks Foundation of the University of Pennsylvania; Americans for the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; and with the Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. D’Agostino is co-founder and co-director with Sarah Turner of Mobile Projection Unit and is a member of the IN/body performance collective in Portland, and Collective Action Studio, San Francisco. D’Agostino works between sculpture, installation, creative coding and video mapping on several programming platforms. The connecting thread in all her work is creating an immersive, interactive environment that places viewers within the work.