Bruno Rodrigues Martins
I’m Bruno Rodrigues Martins, a visual artist from Portugal, currently based in Braga. My practice moves between exhibition projects and audiovisual performance, focusing on the intersection of space and perception. I’m drawn to the tension between the tangible and intangible – how visual language relates to manifestations of presence, whether through memory, experience, or sensory stimulation.
My artistic journey began in 2020, and since then I’ve been selected for programs like ACTUM, gnration’s Laboratórios de Verão, Shopyard and others. I’ve shown work internationally in France and the Netherlands, and participated in residencies across Europe. A recent highlight was creating the visual component for Quimera, the opening show of Braga 25 – Portuguese Capital of Culture. I’m also co-founder of the collective Kindergarten, where we explore the relationships between art and technology.
I work primarily with video, sound, and installation, creating immersive environments that question how we perceive and inhabit space. What excites me most is the liminal territory between the physical and the immaterial – transforming spaces into experiential fields where memory and sensory perception collide.
My background in territorial planning influences how I think about space as a living, relational entity, while my training in audiovisual arts gives me the technical tools to materialize these concepts. I’m particularly interested in how technology can mediate presence, creating works that aren’t just observed but felt and experienced.
Craft projects
artpiece 1
This installation emerges from the intersection between dyeing with natural pigments and my digital practice, exploring how organic matter and technology can inhabit the same space.
The project first took shape during a residency at Córtex Frontal, in Alentejo, where the notion of “scarcity” opened the way to more experimental and improvised processes. The piece continued to develop in other contexts, absorbing chromatic variations and subtle transformations introduced by each location.
In its final composition, hand-dyed surfaces coexist with an electronic system comprising a Raspberry Pi, a camera and a screen, establishing a direct relationship between physical gesture and digital response.
The work unfolds as a process of continuous adaptation, where time, climate, context and technology leave visible marks on the piece.
Serramar
Serramar was a project funded by UNESCO and the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira, investigating the territory, gastronomic heritage, and community practices of a region uniquely situated between mountains and sea.
While I was already familiar with the coastal areas – where fishing techniques dating back thousands of years are still practiced – a long-term residency revealed two additional practices that came to define the project’s scope: a 500-year-old bread recipe still consumed daily, and an agricultural method rooted in a timeless understanding of nature, allowing growth to unfold freely, with space and time.
Integrating this field research with a technical approach, the work was captured using cinematic equipment for both image and sound, aiming to preserve the materiality, rhythm, and spatial qualities of these practices, translating them into an immersive audiovisual experience.
The videos were edited with the intention of preserving their natural rhythm – whether imposed by human or machine. This became the central aim of the work: the coexistence of distinct yet consistent rhythms.
Gardens
This project ended up being the winner of the open call launched by Clermont-Ferrand and Michelin for artists worlwide. “gardens” is a ongoing project that I want to take to different cities across the globe during my lifetime where I want to explore the public spaces and the relationship between those spaces and their habitants. This was the first exhibition of the project, I presented it as an av multi-channel performance, that later became an installation.