*1966, Zürich (ZÜ/CH)
Mark Divo is a concept artist and curator of the Dada tradition who grew up in Zurich and who has developed innovative concepts for inhabiting abandoned spaces.
Divo was behind the liveliest and most influential squatter scenes of the past two decades in Switzerland and elsewhere; In the early 1990s, Divo founded the first group behind Berlin's legendary center for alternative art, Tacheles, Squatted Houses, and later created temporary museums in Zurich and Copenhagen.
He painted large murals in Vienna, Košice or Prague and spread the idea of solidarity and non-solidarity - commercial culture accessible to everyone. In 2002 Divo organized the occupation of Cabaret Voltaire, the cradle of the Dada movement, to protest the proposed closure. This gave him even greater recognition as a driving force for community-oriented cultural events.
Mark Divo has lived in the Czech Republic since 2005 and takes his valuable rubbish collection with him and exhibits his "inhabited sculpture" in the Palac Kinskych gallery at the invitation of the second Prague Biennale. Since then, he has organized various large exhibitions (process festival in Pražská tržnice, Utopia at the Abyss art exhibition in Veletržní palác, etc.), founded a DIVO institute in Kolín, and opened The Solution salon in Prague district. At the beginning of 2016 he started his latest project, a series of cultural events entitled They Met in Kolín, which will take place at the DIVO Institute at regular intervals throughout the year.
Mark Divo lives and works in Prague, Kolin (CZ) and Zurich (CH).
