Runo Lagomarsino was born in 1977 in Lund, Sweden. He received a BFA from the Göteborgs Universitet Akademin Valand in 2001, and an MFA from the Konsthögskolan i Malmö, Sweden, in 2003. He subsequently participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York (2007–08). Born in Scandinavia to Argentinian parents descended from Italian émigrés who fled Europe during the First World War, Lagomarsino’s biography charts the very colonial histories that his work examines. Committed to striking a balance between strident political argument and carefully considered formal composition, he examines how the overlapping histories of Spain’s conquest of the New World and the modernist ideal of progress can be linked to contemporary events. Keenly aware of the conceptual implications of a range of materials and medium, Lagomarsino moves seamlessly between collage, drawing, installation, performance, and video. Arranged as an exhibition of smaller related works, his installation Las Casas is Not a Home (2009–10) explores displacement, geopolitics, and power, using newspaper clippings and slide projections. The work’s title includes a reference to Spanish philosopher and 16th-century critic of slavery and colonialism Bartholomé de Las Casas It also incorporates a play on the Spanish word for home (casa), an idea that the artist returns to in his attempt to loosen the established connection between identity and place. An earlier work titled Geometry of Hope (2007) simply displays the typewritten phrase, “If you don’t know what the south is / It’s simply because you are from the north,” reminding readers to consider the personal and cultural lenses through which they inevitably view the world. Lagomarsino has had solo exhibitions at Galeria Luisa Strina, So Paulo (2011); Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm (2012); and Nils Staerk, Copenhagen (2013) and Mendes Wood DM, So Paulo (both 2013). He has been featured in the group exhibitions I Want to be Able to See What It Is, Lunds Kunsthall, Sweden (2007); Changing Light Bulbs in Thin Air, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, New York; and This is Not America, El Descanso del Guerrero, San Juan, Puerto Rico (both 2009); Vectors of the Possible, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht; and The Moderna Exhibition, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (both 2010); The Way of the Worlds, Regional Contemporary Art Fund of Lorraine, Metz, France (2012); and The Crisis of Confidence, Galeria Victoria Art Center, Bucharest (2013). He also participated in the Guangzhou Triennial and Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (both 2008); Venice Biennale; Istanbul Biennial; and Prague Biennial (2011); and São Paulo Biennial (2012). Lagomarsino lives and works in Malmö, Sweden, and São Paulo.