Born in 1965 in Valladolid, Spain Dora García studied fine arts at the University of Salamanca and at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, both in Spain. Subsequently, she completed her Master’s degree with postgraduate studies at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Afterwards she moved to Brussels, where she lived for 16 years.
In her work, Dora attempts to blur the boundaries between author and actor, reality and fiction and art and life. For this purpose, she uses various media and forms of expression like video, writing, performance and installation. Traditional forms of art presentation are questioned. For example, instead of a traditional sculpture, she “translated” John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera” into a street performance for the Skulptur Projekte Münster in 2007. Here the main protagonist walked through the town, tried to start conversations with passers-by, offering them advice or telling them stories. Accompanied by a daily online diary, the intervention functioned as both a fictional and a real-life narrative, the public converted to actors, so their daily life became part of the artwork.
Dora’s contribution to the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, “The Inadequate” in the Spanish Pavilion was a kind of laboratory, where films and objects from the artist’s previous works met performances and discussion sessions around the title giving subject. Thus, the space was in a state of constant flux and could never be grasped as a whole, since no such whole existed. In consequence, any appreciation of art in the conventional sense was impossible.
For the dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany in 2012, Dora produced the TV-talkshow “KLAU MICH: Radicalism in Society Meets Experiment on TV”. The programme was broadcasted weekly from the Ständehaus in Kassel on Offener Kanal Kassel. Many of the invited guests were familiar with the radicalisation of the late 1960s and 1970s. The genuine public debate was complemented by new forms of experimental narrative theatre. On the other days, the theatre rehearsals could be watched online. Here, too, the lines between reality and fiction became blurred. At the same time, socially relevant issues concerning radicalisation – whether political or directed against established institutions – were addressed. It was intended to challenge former viewers of public service television. Thus, the lives of the viewers were directly aimed.
By contrast, the work currently on display in Geneva is almost traditional. As part of the public art project “Neon Parallax”, “il y a un trou dans le reél”, a neon-installation at the top of a building, communicates gently with passers-by. The installation is our Artwork of the Month / June 2026.
Up to now, Dora has created many more works of art than those mentioned here by way of example. She has held numerous solo exhibitions and has taken part in many group exhibitions, mainly in Europe, but also far beyond. Her works entered important art collections like the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris, France and the San Francisco MoMA, San Francisco, USA. Moreover, she was granted several awards and invited to renown art events, as mentioned above.
Besides her artistic vocation, she had guided and still teaches young artists at various European art schools. Early in the beginning of her career, she was professor at the Luca School of Arts, Brussels, Belgium, followed by the ENSBA Lyon, France. Subsequently, Dora entered the HEAD Genève, Switzerland, and three years later the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. In both institutions she is still active. Meanwhile, the artist was as leader of research workshops member of the teaching body of the PEI (Programa d’Estudis Independents, MACBA, Barcelona) for six years and one year resident professor at Le Fresnoy, France.
Dora lives and works in Oslo, Norway.