Gonçalo Mabunda was born on January 1, 1975 in Maputo, Mozambique. He is an artist and anti-war activist whose work is strongly rooted in the transformation of war materials into contemporary art. Mabunda is internationally recognized for his participation in major exhibitions and institutions, including the Centre Pompidou, the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Hayward Gallery in London, and many others worldwide. His artistic practice began in the context of a post-war reconstruction project launched in 1995 by the Christian Council of Mozambique, known as “Transforming Guns into Hopes”, which involved collecting and deactivating weapons left after the Mozambican civil war. Through this initiative, hundreds of thousands of weapons were recovered across the country.

Within this framework, Mabunda began working with decommissioned weapons and war materials, transforming them into sculptural works. He repurposes bullets, shells, gun parts, and other remnants of conflict, assembling them into powerful sculptural forms such as masks and thrones. His works carry a strong symbolic meaning. The masks, in particular, evoke both the trauma of war and the cultural memory of traditional African ritual objects, creating a dialogue between ancestral heritage and contemporary violence.

Although he grew up during the Mozambican civil war (1975–1991), Mabunda was educated in the capital, Maputo, where he later developed his artistic career. He has exhibited in major international venues such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Palazzo Reale in Milan, and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. He first participated in the Venice Biennale in 2015 and later represented Mozambique in the national pavilion in 2019. Today, he continues to live and work in Maputo, where his practice remains deeply connected to themes of memory, conflict, and transformation of violence into art.