Biography

paula roush é uma artista, investigadora e editora portuguesa que trabalha entre Portugal e o Reino Unido desde o início dos anos 2000. A sua prática atravessa fotografia, publicação, instalação, curadoria e processos participativos e computacionais, desenvolvendo-se através de projectos de longa duração nos quais imagens, livros, arquivos, territórios e formas de encontro funcionam simultaneamente como materiais e dispositivos de investigação.

A sua formação cruza psicologia social, práticas artísticas e investigação interdisciplinar. Estudou Psicologia Social na Universidade de Lisboa e realizou um mestrado em Creative Arts Therapies na Emporia State University, nos Estados Unidos, com uma Fulbright Research Award. Em 2001 integrou o Bauhaus Kolleg, em Dessau, onde realizou uma pós-graduação em Arte e Intervenção Artística em Contexto Urbano no âmbito do projecto Event City. Mais tarde, respondeu a uma comissão da South London Gallery e da Art Fund através de Honorary PhD as an Art Work, concebendo o próprio doutoramento honorário como obra artística.

Em 2004 fundou a msdm — mobile strategies of display & mediation, uma estrutura de investigação artística e editorial que, ao longo de mais de duas décadas, tem assumido diferentes configurações: plataforma curatorial, editora independente, estúdio móvel, arquivo e house-studio-gallery. Desde os primeiros anos da msdm, a sua prática desenvolveu-se entre a produção de obras e a criação de contextos para a produção, circulação e encontro com o trabalho artístico. Esta dimensão manifesta-se em projectos curatoriais como POSTSCRIPT (Part One): Portuguese Live Art in the Age of Scripted Reality, na [SPACE], Londres (2004); Mundos Locais / Local Worlds, no Centro Cultural de Lagos (2008); Hetero q.b., no Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea, Lisboa (2013); e The Book Dispersed: Publishing as a Relational Experience, na Casa das Artes e Sput&Nik The Window, Porto (2017).

A publicação tornou-se progressivamente uma das estruturas centrais da sua prática. Através da msdm publications, roush desenvolve photobooks, livros de artista, edições experimentais e dispositivos editoriais que articulam investigação, arquivo, trabalho de campo e exposição. Esta investigação levou-a, entre outros contextos, ao Frans Masereel Centrum, na Bélgica, e à Arab Image Foundation em Beirute, onde desenvolveu trabalho em torno de arquivos fotográficos, publicação e materialidade da imagem. O seu livro Nothing To Undo recebeu o Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize e foi seleccionado para o Kassel Fotobook Festival; Bus-Spotting + A Story foi seleccionado para o Photo-Text Award dos Rencontres d’Arles.

Ao longo da última década, estes processos têm-se desdobrado em ciclos de investigação em torno de arquivo, água, paisagens pós-industriais, ecologias fluviais, processos botânicos e sistemas computacionais. Entre os projectos que marcam este percurso encontram-se Torn, Folded, Curled (Makan Project Space, Beirute, 2015); Liquid Memories (Borough Road Gallery, Londres, 2022; Water Museum, Lisboa, 2023); Follow Y/Our River: Lea-minal Edges (Borough Road Gallery, Londres, 2023); ‘paula’ & Work: A Document on the Machinic Enslavement in Academic Capitalism (Borough Road Gallery, Londres, 2024); e One Green Eye, the Other Blue — Herbarium of the Anthropocene (MiraForum, Porto, 2025). As suas publicações recentes incluem Photobook Is / Did You Mean Photo Book Is (2020), Liquid Memories ~ to read with water (2022), Follow Y/Our River: Lea-minal Edges e A Manual for Deep Mapping in the Lower Lea Valley (2023), Wide Load [Bred Last]: A House Moved (2023) e One Green Eye, the Other Blue: Herbarium of the Anthropocene (2025).

A pedagogia constitui outra continuidade desta trajectória. Entre 2006 e 2025, roush foi Senior Lecturer na School of Arts and Creative Industries da London South Bank University, onde desenvolveu uma prática pedagógica articulada com investigação artística, fotografia, publicação e processos participativos. Esta relação entre aprendizagem, produção artística e criação de estruturas atravessa igualmente workshops, laboratórios, publicações e projectos colaborativos desenvolvidos dentro e fora de contextos académicos.

Desde 2025, com a sua prática novamente situada em Portugal, roush tem aprofundado uma investigação que aproxima ecologias pós-industriais, práticas botânicas, arquivos, processos computacionais e formas situadas de cuidado. Em 2026, este trabalho tem sido apresentado e desenvolvido em contextos como o MUDE — Museu do Design e CRIA/ISCTE, em Lisboa; Herb Fest, Montemor-o-Novo; Anozero — Bienal de Coimbra; e Experimental Photo Festival, Barcelona. Em Outubro é keynote speaker na conferência ERRAR — Pesquisa Artística em Fotografia, na Universidade Lusófona, Lisboa, e em Novembro participa em The Pencil of Nature, com curadoria de Elina Heikka, na Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, Lisboa.

paula roush is a Portuguese artist, researcher and publisher working between Portugal and the United Kingdom since the early 2000s. Her practice spans photography, publishing, installation, curating, and participatory and computational processes, developing through long-term projects in which images, books, archives, territories and forms of encounter operate simultaneously as materials and devices for research.

Her education crosses social psychology, artistic practice and interdisciplinary research. She studied Social Psychology at the University of Lisbon and completed a Master’s degree in Creative Arts Therapies at Emporia State University in the United States with a Fulbright Research Award. In 2001, she joined the Bauhaus Kolleg in Dessau, where she undertook postgraduate studies in Art and Artistic Intervention in Urban Contexts as part of the Event City project. She later responded to a commission from the South London Gallery and the Art Fund through Honorary PhD as an Art Work, conceiving the honorary doctorate itself as an artwork.

In 2004, she founded msdm — mobile strategies of display & mediation, an artistic research and publishing structure that, over more than two decades, has taken on different configurations: curatorial platform, independent publisher, mobile studio, archive and house-studio-gallery. From msdm’s earliest years, her practice has developed between the production of artworks and the creation of contexts for the production, circulation and encounter of artistic work. This dimension can be traced through curatorial projects including POSTSCRIPT (Part One): Portuguese Live Art in the Age of Scripted Reality at [SPACE], London (2004); Mundos Locais / Local Worlds at Centro Cultural de Lagos (2008); Hetero q.b. at Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon (2013); and The Book Dispersed: Publishing as a Relational Experience at Casa das Artes and Sput&Nik The Window, Porto (2017).

Publishing has progressively become one of the central structures of her practice. Through msdm publications, roush develops photobooks, artists’ books, experimental editions and editorial devices that bring together research, archives, fieldwork and exhibition-making. This research has taken her, among other contexts, to the Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium, and to the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut, where she developed work around photographic archives, publishing and the materiality of the image. Her book Nothing To Undo received the Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Kassel Fotobook Festival; Bus-Spotting + A Story was shortlisted for the Photo-Text Award at Rencontres d’Arles.

Over the past decade, these processes have unfolded through cycles of research engaging archives, water, post-industrial landscapes, river ecologies, botanical processes and computational systems. Projects marking this trajectory include Torn, Folded, Curled (Makan Project Space, Beirut, 2015); Liquid Memories (Borough Road Gallery, London, 2022; Water Museum, Lisbon, 2023); Follow Y/Our River: Lea-minal Edges (Borough Road Gallery, London, 2023); ‘paula’ & Work: A Document on the Machinic Enslavement in Academic Capitalism (Borough Road Gallery, London, 2024); and One Green Eye, the Other Blue — Herbarium of the Anthropocene (MiraForum, Porto, 2025). Her recent publications include Photobook Is / Did You Mean Photo Book Is (2020), Liquid Memories ~ to read with water (2022), Follow Y/Our River: Lea-minal Edges and A Manual for Deep Mapping in the Lower Lea Valley (2023), Wide Load [Bred Last]: A House Moved (2023), and One Green Eye, the Other Blue: Herbarium of the Anthropocene (2025).

Pedagogy constitutes another continuity within this trajectory. From 2006 to 2025, roush was Senior Lecturer at the School of Arts and Creative Industries at London South Bank University, where she developed a pedagogical practice connecting artistic research, photography, publishing and participatory processes. This relationship between learning, artistic production and the creation of structures also runs through workshops, laboratories, publications and collaborative projects developed within and beyond academic contexts.

Since 2025, with her practice once again situated in Portugal, roush has been deepening a line of research bringing together post-industrial ecologies, botanical practices, archives, computational processes and situated forms of care. In 2026, this work has been presented and developed in contexts including MUDE — Museu do Design and CRIA/ISCTE in Lisbon; Herb Fest, Montemor-o-Novo; Anozero — Coimbra Biennial; and Experimental Photo Festival, Barcelona. In October, she is a keynote speaker at ERRAR — Conference on Artistic Research in Photography at Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon, and in November participates in The Pencil of Nature, curated by Elina Heikka at Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, Lisbon.