Nuno Cera
Anatomia do deserto
15 MAY 2026

Nuno Cera is a photographer and video artist. Nuno Cera's work operates at the intersection of art and documentary and addresses three fundamental forms of change: natural, spatial and temporal. His long-term research projects involve different agents and collaborators, including scientists, actors, writers and critics. His work has been exhibited and published internationally in various cultural institutions. Cera was artist-in-residence in Berlin (Künstlerhaus Bethanien), New York (ISCP – International Studio & Curatorial Program), Paris (Récollets), and Macau (Fundação Oriente). In 2003, together with architect Diogo Seixas Lopes, he published the book Cimêncio, a survey of suburban landscapes. He was nominated for the BES Photo Prize in 2004. Between 2007 and 2010, he developed the project Futureland, an artistic investigation into urban growth across nine metropolises.
In 2012, he received a grant from the 20th edition of the Fundación Marcelino Botín, Santander, for the project Sinfonia do Desconhecido I. He undertook an artist residency at the International Artist Residency Récollets (Mairie de Paris), Paris, in 2013, and in Macau in 2018 (Babel – Organização Cultural and Fundação Oriente). In 2019, he received support from DGArtes – Ministry of Culture / Portuguese Republic for the video installation Sinfonia do Desconhecido II, and in 2023 for the video installation cérebros, distantes. In 2023, he also received a creation grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for the project Acid Flamingo. Nuno Cera was one of the invited artists in the official Portuguese representation at the Venice Architecture Biennale Public without Rhetoric (2018) and Metaflux (2004), and served as co-curator of the 2025 edition, Paraíso, Hoje.
“These images raise an issue which is the ecological aspect of exploitation and resource extraction and, in a way, the technological aspect as well. (...) I was also interested in creating a classic exhibition, featuring photography that is almost like travel and landscape photography. There was this idea of returning to something more contemplative”.
Nuno Cera in interview with Miguel Nabinho























