Mário Macilau Mozambique, 1984

Mário Macilau is a multi-disciplinary artist, most known for his photography. He started taking pictures in 2003 with his mother’s mobile phone focusing on urban life of Maputo and in 2007 he bought his first professional camera when he traded his mother's cell phone. Macilau specialises in long-term photography projects and series that address the complex realities of human labour and environmental conditions.

Macilau has been shortlisted for the 2019 Mast Award and the was a finalist of the Unicef Photo of the Year in 2009, the Greenpeace Photo Award 2016, and is in the permanent collection of the Pompidou Centre.

Selected exhibitions include: Songs of the Present, Musée de la Photographie de Saint Louis, Senegal (2018); Afrique Capitales, La Villette, Paris (2017); Pavilion of the Holy See, 56th Venice Biennale (2015); Making Africa, Vitra Museum, Weil am Rhein (2015); Discovery Show, Fotofestiwal Łódź, Poland (2015); Pangaea: Art from Africa and Latin America, Saatchi Gallery, London (2014); The African Art Auction, Bonhams, London (2013); Recontres Picha, Bienalle de Lubumbashi (2013), The Biennale Arts Actuels, Saint-Denis, Réunion (2013); Pan-African Exhibition, Recontres de Bamako: Biennale of African Photography, Mali (2011); VI Chobi Mela Photo Festival, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2011); and Lagos Photo, Nigeria (2011).