Who Is Mark Divo?
Mark Divo is a Zurich-raised conceptual artist and curator of the Dada tradition who has developed innovative concepts with inhabiting abandoned spaces. Divo stood behind the most vibrant and influential squatting scenes of the past two decades in Switzerland and elsewhere; founder of the first group behind Berlin’s legendary alternative art hub Tacheles in the very early 1990s, squatting houses and creating temporary museums in Zurich or Copenhagen later on, painting large murals in Vienna, Košice or Prague, Mark was spreading the idea of solidary and non-commercial culture accessible to everyone.
His work artistic is situated at the boundary of conceptual and performance art. In his inhabited sculptures, he extends ideas such as shared authorship and the ready-made into performative installations, which he sets up at myriad locations in different countries. Divo produces his works and exhibitions from found objects such as waste, antiques, bric-a-brac and books, using them as the raw material and starting point for his installations. He also employs icons from art history as ideational material in his adaptations. For example, he utilises colourful cleaning sponges to satirise famous artworks and “re-enacts” classic paintings in staged photographs.
In 2002, Divo organized the occupation of Cabaret Voltaire, the cradle of the Dada movement, to protest against its planned closure; this endowed him with even greater recognition as the driving force of community-oriented cultural happenings. It also acted as the inauguration for Mark Divo’s International Dada Festivals, which have been held in various cities throughout the years.
Since 2005 Mark Divo has branched out to the Czech Republic, taking with him his precious collection of rubbish and exhibiting his “inhabited sculpture” in Palac Kinskych gallery, upon invitation from the Prague’s second Biennale. Since then, he has organized various large exhibitions (Proces festival in Pražská tržnice, Utopia on the Abyss, art show in Veletržní palác, to name a few), founded a DIVO institute in the city of Kolín, and opened The Solution salon in Prague’s hip district Vršovice in 2014. In the beginning of 2015, he moved this Project to Bojivoiova Street in Ziskov, and after getting thrown out of the premise ,the solution is back in his flat and studio in Vinohradska. Mark Divo is based in Prague and Zürich, he sometimes teaches at the Faculty of Arts in Charles University in Prague and is still hosting salons at his flat, and organizing shows all around Europe.
Mark Divo according to others
- ‘In Bed With Mark Divo’ – Memoir by Jan Theiler
- ‘How One of Divo’s Jokes Created a Museum’ – by Thomas Haemmerli
- ‘More Breakable Than Glass’ – interview by Fritz Billeter (pdf)