Lisbon, Portugal, b.1977 in Lisbon. He attended the Faculty of Fine Arts School at the University of Lisbon and the UDK, Universität der Künste, Berlin. Paiva has been working as a visual artist since 2001, when he began an artistic partnership with João Maria Gusmão, that continued until 2021. Over the last twenty years, this work has been presented in museum exhibitions, art galleries, cinemas and even theater stages. In recent years Pedro Paiva has been directing his fictional feature film A-Moeda-Viva, as well as collaborating with Cláudio da Silva and Carolina Dominguez in the theater production Woyzeck, Fuk’em’ol!, premiered in 2023.
His long-standing multidisciplinary collaboration with João Maria Gusmão began in 2001, in the field of experimental analog film, photography and installation, while simultaneously developing an essayistic discourse. The use of obsolete image reproduction processes, such as 16mm film or slide projections, supports an aesthetic vocabulary based on philosophical references such as Nietzsche or fantastic and science fiction literature.
Their career has been consolidated internationally at events such as the São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2006), Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre (2007), Manifesta 7, Kassel (2008), and PhotoEspaña, Madrid (2008). They represented Portugal at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009.
Their work is represented in several international museum collections, including: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, MACBA, Centre Georges Pompidou, Tate Modern, SFMOMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco and the Serralves Museum.