Mark Curran (Ireland, 1964) is an activist researcher and educator based in Berlin and Dublin. Incorporating multi-media installation, centrally informed by visual anthropology, he has undertaken a cycle of long-term projects critically addressing the predatory impact of migrations of global capital. Includes SOUTHERN CROSS (1999-2002), The Breathing Factory (2002-2006) and Ausschnitte aus EDEN/Extracts from EDEN (2003-2009). These have been extensively exhibited and published alongside presentations at conferences and symposia.

His multi-sited transnational project, THE MARKET (2010-) focuses on the functioning and condition of the global markets and the central role of financial capital. Installations include, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2014), Noorderlicht, Netherlands (2015 & 2019), Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto (2016), Athens Biennale (2017), Le Bleu du Ciel, Lyon (2017), Krakow Photomonth (2018), Ballarat Biennale, Australia (2019), Museum of Capitalism (Oakland 2017 & New York City 2019), Photo Museum Ireland (2021), PhotoIreland (2022) & Villa Heike, Berlin (2022).

Conferences/Symposia include Photographers’ Gallery, London (2012), Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)(2013), Abbey Theatre, Dublin (2014), McGill University, Montreal (2014), University of Bern (2015), Boston University (2016), CAA, NYC (2017), Royal Anthropological Institute, London (2020), University of South Wales (2021), Aalto University, Helsinki (2022), University College Cork (UCC)(2024), The Left Berlin (2024) & Floating University, Berlin (2024).

He holds a practice-led MPhil. & PhD, one of the first in the Republic of Ireland, and lectures on the BA (Hons) Photography & Visual Media and is a Postgraduate Supervisor at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), Dublin. From 2011-2021, he was Visiting Professor on the MA Visual & Media Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin.

In 2021, Curran was an invited Research Associate, ARCHIVO Research Network (Portugal) & University of Arts London (UAL)(UK). From 2006-2008, Visiting Faculty, Postgraduate Summer Programme, Steinhardt School for Cultural Studies, New York University. 

In the 1980s, Curran became active in Ireland and then Canada, on projects against Apartheid in South Africa and in support of Palestine, alongside working with young people from First Nation communities in Alberta, Canada. From 1991-1996, he worked as a Social Worker in the area of Disability & Independent Living in Canada and when he returned to Ireland, with a focus on Empowerment, Advocacy and Self-Advocacy.

Keywords Globalisation, Financial Capital, Labour, Algorithmic Machinery, Visual Anthropology, Global Markets, Futures, Precarity, Abstraction, Virtualisation, Representation, Ethnography, Photography, Data Visualisation, Visual Activism, Installation, Multivocality/Montage