Valentino Skarwan 


Valentino Skarwan, *1998, born in Vienna and raised in Guatemala, lives and works in Vienna and Guatemala City. They study Transmedia Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (under Jakob Lena Knebl) while simultaneously pursuing a Fine Arts degree with Judith Eisler.

Like a spider’s web, Skarwan interweaves performance, sculpture, installation, video, and photography into open and porous forms—fluid formats that resist rigid definitions. Their work explores fluid entities, questions of identity, and the urgency of rethinking new ways of being and their relationship to the environment.

Their works have been exhibited both in Austria and internationally. In 2024, they were nominated for the Ö1 Talent Scholarship. In 2023, they presented a piece at Belvedere 21 as part of performances at Über das Neue. They have collaborated and performed with various artists and choreographers, including Doris Uhlich, Gelatin, Hugo Canoilas, Anne Sprinkler, and Beth Stephens.


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Artist Statement

My artistic practice begins with the desire for encounters, with people, spaces, and non-human beings. This longing for exchange and connection is the starting point of my work. I create spaces where new forms of togetherness can emerge, with oneself, with others, and with the world. Always in a state of becoming, it is a space of possibility where bodies can exist but also dissolve.

Through an interdisciplinary approach, I explore constructed narratives in which bodies and their entanglements with the environment take center stage. With a poetic and queer perspective, inspired by myths, indigenous cosmologies from Guatemala, and contemporary motifs, I examine how stories shape our perception of identity and reality.

With family roots in both Guatemala and Austria, my work is shaped by the experience of moving between different traditions, languages, and perspectives. This in-betweenness is not a state of uncertainty for me but a space for speculation and the invention of new possibilities.

I am interested in how identity, intimacy, and belonging are not fixed categories but are constantly reshaped through the stories we tell. The body, for me, is a site of memory and metamorphosis, always shifting, always evolving. My art is an invitation to see the world beyond a human-centered perspective. It challenges us to explore new forms of connection and empathy.