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Matteo Rosaselected works

Matteo Rosa

selected works

At the core of my work is an interest in the unveiling of awareness.

This brings me to a fascination for the interconnectedness of things,

the play between form and formlessness, transience and stillness,

imagination and presence. My practice explores art’s potential to

address forgotten or neglected aspects of the self, such as the primal

feeling of being in one’s own body, at a time when we are exposed to

the largest amount of information in history. I employ various media,

from drawing and painting to photography, video and installation.

“The function of unreality comes to charm or disturb

– always to awaken – the sleeping being lost in its automatisms.”

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Met (2000)

Proposal for site-specific intervention

Arteries, series of site-specific projects throughout Edinburgh, 2000.

Proposal for a site-specific work consisting of a glass gutter with

funnel-shaped cavities, conceived for one of the enclosed spaces in

Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh.

The spaces were accessible through central open doorways and

delimited by stone walls. They were mostly empty and possessed a

geometrical orderly presence.

The piece I proposed was intended to collect the falling rain in a

gutter and release it through a number of funnels, creating thread-like

liquid columns running down to the ground, marking the earth.

I chose a transparent material such as glass to avoid corrupting

the atmosphere of the graveyard. I wanted the piece not to intrude or

create contrast. With time, it would also have weathered, assuming

the tones of the surrounding environment.

The delicate changeable water columns were meant to evoke

natural events such as falling, raising and evaporating; as well as

human bodily functions and spiritual beliefs. They lead the rain to

the soil, marrying the air to the dark ground, visualising a transitional

meeting between sky and earth.

Only a section of the work was realised, and during the exhibition

a sign stood in the space, illustrating the project to the visitors.

Untitled (Proposal for McGrigor Donald) (2000)

Proposal for site-specific intervention

Conceived in response to a call for submissions by the Scottish law firm

McGrigor Donald for their new premises in Princes Exchange, Edinburgh.

Proposal for site-specific installation featuring hundreds of glass

rods and tubes, partially bearing glass blown spheres, to be affixed

directly into a recessed bronze painted wall in the reception area.

The work would have extended organically in the space, the use

of glass connecting it to the facade of the building, linking interior and

exterior. Based on a grid with elements of subtle variation, the piece

would have constantly varied depending on the viewer’s position, the

tubes acting as lines of perspective. The spheres and straight lines

would have contrasted with each other, reacting differently to light.

Each sphere would have been sandblasted to a different degree,

producing further gradations in tone.

The work may have been reminiscent of something both

“natural” and “artificial”: like the texture of a recently cut field, but

also like an electronic chart. It would have alluded to notions of time

and harvesting: the rods bearing no sphere seemingly about to

blossom, or perhaps their fruit having already been picked.

Untitled (Proposal for Royal College of Physicians) (2001)

Proposal for site-specific intervention

Conceived in response to a call for submissions by the Royal College of Physicians

in Edinburgh. Selected yet not realised due to changes in ownership of the grounds.

The wall was situated in a small courtyard between two premises

of the College. It was visible from a number of windows and from an

elevated glass passageway linking the two buildings. Made of cement,

it was frequently soaked by the rain.

The work I proposed consisted of a series of horizontal clear glass

shelves, featuring funnel-like cavities at an irregular rhythm. A drawing

based on the same motif was to be created at the back, in a denser

pattern, acting as a shadow or trace.

A diversion to the neighbouring downpipe would also have been

created, allowing water to run down the wall and be released through

the funnels. Each time it rained, the installation would have delicately

and playfully come to life.

The highest funnels would have contained clear quartz stones,

while the lowest ones pieces of coal, like black alchemical matter,

suggesting a purification process. The coal would have eventually

been washed away by the rain.

Untitled (Ash Silhouettes) (2001)

Site-specific intervention, Edinburgh College of Art

Rosa, Taylor, Vazquez-Ponte, Edinburgh College of Art, 2001.

Series of temporary wall drawings made with ashes from

burnt paper, in the shape of silhouettes.

Small in scale, some were full figures, while others only fragments.

An additional piece was created with remnants of dried white paint

onto a sheet of glass, placed on a shelf. Almost invisible, but casting

a dark shadow on the wall behind. One of the panels of the nearby

door was also covered with ashes.

I was interested in the silhouette as a representation of the

demarcation line between self and other. While the ashes were

suggestive of both defilement and impermanence.

Formally the figures responded to the plaster casts of ancient

Greek friezes displayed in the space and throughout the College.

Untitled (Cruiser) (2002-2010)

Series of digital prints, various dimensions

Mergere, Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, 2010; Kåt A4, Galleri Box, Gothenburg, 2009;

Ida Branson Memorial Bequest, Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, 2003; The Dirt of Love,

Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, 2002; 11 days, Wasps Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh, 2002.

Silhouettes are representations of the border between inside and

outside, self and other – pointing to the notion of the self as separate

and independent. In these works, the landscape is brought inside,

absorbed by the body, like the feeling or memory of being in a certain

place and time. The images hint at the interconnectedness of things,

as well as at a longing for communion with nature and existence.

The works may be viewed in relation to Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s

investigations on a general anonymous vision, including both subject

and object, which he described as “the flesh of the world”. As well

as in connection to Sigmund Freud’s writings on mysticism, which he

defined as an “oceanic feeling of indissoluble bond with the universe”,

as opposed to experiencing sharp lines of demarcation towards the

outer world.

The figures I used were drawn from queer pornographic literature,

adding to the works a reference to the phenomenon of gay cruising

in public spaces such as parks and woodlands – connecting such

universal mystical longing with the sensuous and prosaic.

Close (2002)

Mixed media installation

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2002.

Close consisted of several interconnected elements. A series

of shower curtains hung in a row, subdividing the space. Marked

and stained, they appeared like drawings or canvases, authorless

reflections of their owners through time. They pointed to entropy

and impermanence, but also to the body and intimacy.

The cubicles formed by the curtains were interwoven by electric

cables with lightbulbs, lit in different intensities. Various other objects

punctuated the space, such as a broken chair, a couple of semi-empty

frames and a wall clock ticking at an unusual speed. Affixed to the wall

were a series of spectacles lenses with imprinted images of nature.

Facing a second chair, a video work was shown. Presented on

a dated monitor, producing overly saturated colours, shadows of trees

moved repeatedly across the screen. As soundtrack, the narrator’s

improvised train of thoughts, its sound diffusing in the room.

A deserted set where the viewer was allowed to wander,

the various objects directing his or her experience. A series of veils

or boundaries – the curtains, the lenses, the fleeting shadows on the

screen – evoking a state beyond the ordinary passage of time.

“Reflection on dirt involves reflection on the relation

of order to disorder, being to non-being, form to

formlessness, life to death.”

Mary Douglas

“For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is

[…] in its Age, and in that deep sense of voicefulness

[…] which we feel in walls that have long been

washed by the passing waves of humanity

[…] in that golden stain of time.”

John Ruskin

Threshold (2003)

Site-specific light and sound intervention

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2003.

The work consisted of two spotlights, a blue one and a red one,

hung above the doorways at the opposite ends of a corridor. Both

lights gradually and repeatedly changed in intensity, while their buzz

was amplified through a speaker. Sound and lights created a sort of

“breathing effect”, activating the space and intending to evoke in the

viewer a feeling of both containing and being contained.

The work responded to the architecture, as well as to a copy of

Lorenzo Ghiberti’s 15th century Doors of Paradise from the Baptistery

in Florence, on permanent display in the same space.

In 2002 I began filming shadows cast by trees onto a white screen.

The resulting video works could be seen as a metaphor for the mind

and the fleeting images of perception, imagination and memory.

The camera is fixed, the screen does not move – pointing to

an underlying and eluding stillness.

Vento (2002)

Silent colour video, 13 min. 45 sec. loop

Il raccolto d’autunno è stato abbondante, Careof and Viafarini DOCVA, Milan, 2009;

Passager, Galleri Mors Mössa, Gothenburg, 2007; Word in Motion, International Video

Festival, Riga, 2003; Videoteque, Ten Gallery, St Ives, 2002; Close, Edinburgh College

of Art, Edinburgh, 2002.

The piece shows the mesmerising movement of trees in the

wind. It was first shown accompanied by the sound of an improvised

monologue.

Vigilant (2002)

Silent black and white video, 11 min. 48 sec. loop

Serere, Galleri Ping Pong, Malmö, 2006; Close, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 2002.

Like a slowly moving photograph. Over its duration, the sunlight

gradually shifts from one side of the screen to the other.

Solace (2004)

Silent black and white video, duration variable

Asolo International Art Film Festival, Teatro E. Duse, Asolo, 2005; About space, Midlands

Arts Centre, Birmingham, 2005; This is not film, Clarion Hotel, Stockholm, 2004; Skånes

Videofilmfestival 2004 (Best Art Film Award), Helsingborg, 2004; Graphé, Galleri Pictura,

Lund, 2004.

The play of light and shadow beneath a tree. The work was

first presented as an installation with a bench in a quiet room, as a

resting place where visitors could mark their thoughts in a notebook.

I then inserted their entries into the work itself, to present in other

contexts such as film screenings. The polyphony of anonymous

thoughts constructs the illusion of a single subject.

Solace (2004)

silent black and white video, 1 min. 6 sec. loop

installation view at Galleri Pictura, Lund, 2004

Untitled (Slush) (2004)

Dirty snow on watercolour paper

Ungkonst, Mazetti Kultur, Malmö, 2005; Graphé, Galleri Pictura, Lund, 2004.

“It is nearly enraging to discover the sheer simplicity of the work.

And distressing to realise its fragility. One tap of the finger on the

backside of the paper and the drawing sprinkles away as the dust it

actually is. But the moral of this is not the romantic delusion that all

beauty must fade and ultimately die – but rather that we must care

for these endowments […]. A reminder.”

Tor Billgren, journalist and art critic (The Jet Set Junta, December 2005)

Untitled (Slush) (2004)

dirty snow on watercolour paper (details from series), 21 x 30 cm each

Through Out (2005)

silver gelatin print mounted on aluminium, 60 x 40 cm

Graphé (2004)

Vinyl chips on wall, dimensions variable

Galleri Pictura, Lund, 2004.

Work created directly on the gallery walls using black, grey

and white vinyl chips – ordinary decorating materials used mostly

in Scandinavian public spaces such as staircases and stations.

Visually the work is reminiscent of minimalist art, with its ethos

on pure presence devoid of representation, heightening the viewer’s

self-awareness through the experience of space. Yet the piece is rich

in metaphor, and the materials employed place it in a region between

art and everyday life.

The wall assumes the tone of a black and white photograph being

developed. An analogy for the way we are “impressed” and conditioned

through time by our environments and choices. The black fragments

being suggestive of the past, the grey ones of the present, and the

white ones of the future – yet unimpressed. The title, Graphé, is an

ancient Greek word meaning both drawing and writing.

Graphé (2005)

Vinyl chips and varnish on painted MDF board, 200 x 200 cm

Årsutställning 2005, Malmö Art Academy, Malmö, 2005.

The work, originally executed directly on the gallery walls using

black, grey and white vinyl chips, was later developed into a painting.

Applied in several layers onto a large square board, the motif conveys

a further sense of depth, reminiscent of both stillness and flux.

Accompanying the painting was a small floor sculpture in the

shape of a sphere, its surface covered with the same pattern.

La mia voce (2004-2007)

Mixed media installation

Passager, Galleri Mors Mössa, Gothenburg, 2007; Beep, Galleri Peep, Malmö, 2004.

The viewer is confronted with a theatrically lit microphone on a

stand in a darkened room. On closer inspection, a lyrical singer’s voice

is heard being emitted through the microphone, repeatedly singing the

Italian words for “my voice” in different tones. I chose Italian because

it is my native language, but also the original language of opera.

The work reflects on finding one’s own true voice, while the use

of a recording device to emit sound may be read as a playful take

on the interchangeability of traditional active and receptive roles.

“We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in

composition that each bit, each moment, plays its own game

[…] Myself now and myself a while ago are indeed two.”

Michel De Montaigne

Untitled (Tegel) (2005)

Bricks and brick-dust from demolished buildings

Ungkonst 2005, Mazetti Kultur, Malmö, 2005; Fruits of the season,

Galleri Rostrum, Malmö, 2005.

I gathered the materials for this work from a site where stacks

of old bricks from demolished buildings had been left outside over time.

Gradually the rain had began corroding them, tinging the whole terrain

bright orange – the clay used for their making having returned to the

ground. A symbol for lasting stability being rendered back to dust.

Festa di contrada (2005)

Colour video, 23 min. loop

Ungkonst, Mazetti Kultur, Malmö, 2005; Passager, Galleri Peep, Malmö, 2005.

“At times it is only a matter of shifting your gaze slightly out of

focus for new possibilities to reveal themselves. […]

The street light, we soon notice, is encircled by buzzing creatures

– indefatigable as these flying creatures are. Songs replace one

another, wine is drunk below in the square, perhaps a man pinches

a woman’s bum – terribly dull, sexist and predictable, really. Yet

the flies continue swarming around the lamp as if nothing else was

happening in the world. The scene becomes hypnotic. This is where

the real drama takes place. The people, with their karaoke rumbling

down in the square, are nothing more than a parenthesis.”

Tor Billgren, journalist and art critic (Sydsvenskan, September 2005)

Passager (2005-2009)

Mixed media installation

Il raccolto d’autunno è stato abbondante, Careof / Viafarini / DOCVA, Milan, 2009;

Passager, Galleri Mors Mössa, Gothenburg, 2007; Passager, Galleri Peep, Malmö, 2005.

“A certain evanescence combined with stillness distinguishes most

of Matteo Rosa’s works. Time and fugitiveness are crucial elements.

Dregs of dirt from a melting snowball seem to imitate Indian ink washes

– a beautiful image of loss which seems to operate in a non-linguistic

field of impossible, written presence. Vanitas painting as calligraphy.

The artist Michaux at his most Buddhist period.

The affinity between macro and microcosmos is described through

photo, video and sculptural installations. One is within the other: a little

filth on the water surface transforms instantly into stars, nebulae and

galaxies. The same happens with dust on a projector lens. It plays the

main part in the film, while the motif itself (an elderly woman knitting in

an eternal movement) is left out of focus.

In this exhibition, the tactile and in fact erotic aspects are at the

core. A rectangular accumulation of seeds may illustrate the breaking

point between structure and chaos, but at the same time the seeds are

sperms in a peculiarly enlarged fertilising scenario. Used paper towels,

touched and crumpled by many, many hands, speak softly of bodily

contact and sensuality, but also of consumption, of finding oneself in

an irrevocable ‘afterwards’. An anonymous erotic encounter on a park

bench laconically commented, leaving a discreet aftertaste of loss.

The text on the park bench is a readymade, an internet find.

Rosa’s exhibition constitutes a clearly sexualised sphere,

a powerful if yet subtly formulated statement, consisting of a few

separate stations to pass in between, join together, pass by. They

are words to pronounce speechlessly only to oneself.”

Leif Holmstrand, artist and author, 2005

Passager (2005-2009)

installation view at Galleri Peep, Malmö, 2005

Passager (2005-2009)

installation view at Galleri Mors Mössa, Gothenburg, 2007

Serere (2006)

Mixed media installation

Serere, Galleri Ping Pong, Malmö, 2006.

“The main gallery space is taken up by a floor piece: first he

painted a white square, then placed heaps of seeds on it and finally

lowered a glass sheet on top. With the air pressure, the seeds spread

over the surface, fixed under the weight of the glass. It looks a little like

a vegetarian Jackson Pollock, but infinitely more reserved. One could

talk about ‘retreatism’ instead of expressionism, with yearning and

perhaps a little melancholy. The nostalgia of desire.

Three ink drawings hang together in the hallway. New ways of

retreat. These were not touched by Rosa either. He poured Indian ink

in a metal cup, heated it up from underneath and laid a piece of paper

on top – round shapes, marks of simmering colour raised by the heat,

while the paper is scolded in various degrees. On the floor lie part of

the seeds, which landed out of the glass. It is the fragile dimension

of the future in Rosa’s world.”

Lars-Erik Hjertström, art critic (Konsten, April 2006)

Resting Satyr (2006)

c-print mounted on aluminium, 33 x 50 cm

Passager (2005)

c-print mounted on aluminium, 57 x 38 cm

Libero (2005)

Silent colour video, 1 min.

Liminal Express, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (2018);

The One Minutes at Design, Poverty, Fiction, Grand Hornu, Boussu (2013); Let The

User Speak Next (Mapping Place and Space), Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2008);

Video Cup, Botnik Studios, Gerlesborg (2007); SSA on Screen, Royal Scottish Academy,

Edinburgh (2006); The one minutes, Paradiso, Amsterdam (2005); Independent Exposure!,

Microcinema International, San Francisco (2005); Årutställning 2005, Malmö Art Academy,

Malmö (2005).

Libero is a short silent video, one minute long. The camera is

still, showing a river flowing in a mountain valley. Suddenly a balloon

appears in the scene and flies up to the sky, till it briefly disappears.

Like an egg or a sperm being released in the world. A life, making its

appearance and disappearance in the world, momentarily marking

existence. And the foreigner, the other, leaving his homeland in

search of another. Not like Ulysses, involved in a round journey,

but a wandering with no return. Perhaps the pull of another

gravity, levitation, transcendence.

Forgo (2005)

Silent colour video, 3 min. 40 sec. loop

Passager, Galleri Peep, Malmö, 2005.

Forgo presents a series of balloons which, one after the other,

are allowed to freely fly away. The video is shot from below, against

the background of an overly blue sky. A meditation on letting go.

Flitting (2007)

Silent colour video, 2 min. 56 sec. loop

Piccolo Festival dell’Arte, University of Trento, Trento, 2012;

Migrant, Krognoshuset, Lund, 2007.

“The camera is pointed at a house in northern Italy, while logs

are being thrown out from one of its dark glassless windows with

rhythmical regularity. The absence of sound delays and reduces the

movement to a perpetuum which, while maintaining an atmosphere of

complete stillness, still manages to stage a narrative. Silence – and

to genuinely experience silence – is an all too rare occurrence that in

Rosa’s work is given a liberating, perhaps even mind expanding role.

Flitting thus opens a space for a meditative experience in a cautious

manner that is quite representative of Rosa’s artistic method and

particularly of his video works.”

Joakim Borda, art critic and curator, 2007

Morphé (2005)

Silent colour video, 12 min. 32 sec. loop

Sette artisti trentini, Parco Asburgico, Levico Terme, 2011; Radar.01 - Indagine biennale

sulla giovane arte in Trentino, Al Silenzio, Rovereto, 2008; Passager, Galleri Peep,

Malmö, 2005.

An elderly woman’s hands, knitting and then undoing their work.

The image appears out of focus, like the fleeting reflection of someone

gazing out of a window at night, while the dust collected onto the

projector’s filter creates the illusion of a starry night.

A quiet reflection on micro and macrocosm, form and its

dissolution.

Migrant (2007)

Site-specific intervention in three apartment buildings in Malmö,

commissioned by MKB (Malmös Kommunala Bostadsbolag)

Hjärpen, Möllevångsgatan 36 - Södra Skolgatan 26 A & B, Malmö.

Work commissioned by the housing firm of the City of Malmö

for three newly built rental buildings in Möllevången, an area of town

characterised by its multiculturalism.

For this project, I collected handwritten letters sent both by 19th

century Swedish emigrants and by various nationalities that in more

recent times have settled in Sweden. I then over-layered the scripts to

create an almost abstract pattern, composed by individual handwritings

in different languages. This was finally screen-printed using blue ink

onto the ceiling’s acoustic panels, placed in the three corridors where

the tenants’ mailboxes are kept.

Rather than introducing a new object, the piece subtly intervenes

on the already existent, blurring the boundaries between the work and

its setting. The result is non-monumental and almost subliminal, while

the anonymity of the rental home is affected by such intimate, carefully

traced words.

Migrant (2007-2016)

Series of silkscreen prints

Migrant, Krognoshuset, Lund, 2007.

“Originally a public art project for an apartment building in central

Malmö, Migrant assumes its place in Krognoshuset as a conceptual

piece in its own right.

The work is composed of private handwritten letters, sent by

emigrants to and from Sweden, from the time of the great emigrations

of the 19th century to the ethnic displacements of today. The texts

have been merged together into abstract patterns – removing any

traces of legibility whilst keeping the characteristics of handwriting –

and screen-printed onto glass fibre sheets akin to the sound isolating

panels employed for the final work in the building. […]

Much in the same way as the panels in the house absorb sound,

the texts in Migrant seem to corrode and dissolve, as if absorbed by

their own support. Ultimately, these palimpsests of glass fibre become

a contemplation of evanescence, of the transitory existence of things.”

Joakim Borda, art critic and curator, 2007

Migrant (2007)

series of silkscreen prints on glass fibre sheets

59 x 59 cm each (65 x 65 cm framed)

installation view at Krognoshuset, Lund, 2007

From the series Migrant (2007-2016)

silkscreen print on paper, 59 x 59 cm each (detail)

photo: Werner Zellien / KORO

From the series Migrant (2007-2016)

series of silkscreen prints on paper

59 x 59 cm each (65 x 65 cm framed)

installation view at Kongsvinger Prison, Oslo, 2016

photo: Werner Zellien / KORO

Series of video works realised using an out of order video camera.

As if by accident, in almost psychedelic tones, a deeper layer of reality

is revealed, reminiscent of the state of communion with existence

described by mystics.

Amidst (2008)

Silent colour video, 7 min. loop

Borderland - The Entropy of Identities, MECA Mediterráneo Centro Artístico,

Almería, 2014; Piccolo Festival dell’Arte, University of Trento, Trento, 2012;

As We Speak, Stereo, Glasgow International Festival, Glasgow, 2010;

The Spring Exhibition 2009, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, 2009;

Mirari, Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2009; Radar.01 - Indagine biennale

sulla giovane arte in Trentino, Museo Civico, Riva del Garda, 2008.

“The ephemeral is also the common thread in the video Amidst.

The watercourse in a public park is filmed with a video camera that

suddenly stops working as it should, creating a dreamlike landscape

with unnatural and hyper-saturated colours. The unexpected reveals

all of its potential: exclusive entry into another dimension, which puts

us in contact with everything in a kind of contemporary mysticism.

Marco Tomasini, art critic and curator, 2008

Transire (2009)

Silent colour video, 2 min. 30 sec. loop

Mergere, Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, 2010;

Feed Thy Soul, E:ventGallery, London, 2009.

The piece captures the wavering foliage of a tree in the wind,

its movement echoed by the flickering screen – as if gazing through

a curtain of electronic signals.

Flouen (2009)

Silent colour video, 1 min. 53 sec. loop

Feed Thy Soul, E:ventGallery, London, 2009;

Brännaren 2, Föreningen Ute, Malmö, 2009.

The camera is positioned over a stream, while small particles

gradually gather and then disperse again on the surface. The work

was first presented on a monitor placed on the gallery floor, and later

outdoors in an abandoned industrial site.

Transire (2009)

silent colour video, 2 min. 38 sec. loop

installation view at E:ventGallery, London, 2009

Amidst (2008)

silent colour video, 7 min. loop

Flouen (2009)

silent colour video, 1 min. 53 sec. loop

installation view at Brännaren 2, Malmö, 2009

Isole di Luce (2009)

Natural dyes from poplar leaves on watercolour paper

Mirari, Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2009.

“Ethereal leaf shapes dance on paper and form a fragmented

pattern of shadow and light. Created with natural dyes from poplar

leaves, Matteo Rosa titled these delicate watercolour sheets

Isole di Luce (Islands of Light).

He explains how he envisioned them: almost like the shadow

play beneath the foliage of trees lit through by the sun. But also like

a mindscape, where reflections and emotions form islands, partly

interconnected, partly surrounded by rest and space.

What a delightful state, I reflect – like an opening, a sudden

breathing space in daily life’s stress. Contemplating his drawings and

photographs allows me to touch the settling calm which nature, through

his glance, becomes a bearer of. The aesthetic expression in his art is

perhaps unassuming yet functions precisely because of this as a light

for the soul. A worn expression, I know, yet in this case it is so.

His exhibition at Galleri S:t Gertrud bears no sweeping manners,

but glimmers all the more brightly with a series of quiet masterpieces.”

Carolina Söderholm, art critic (Sydsvenskan, April 2009)

Isole di Luce (2009)

natural dyes from poplar leaves on watercolour paper

detail from diptych, 70 x 50 cm each part (80 x 61 cm framed)

Through (2008) and Isole di luce (2009)

installation view at Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2009

Lauss (2009)

natural dyes from poplar leaves on paper, diptych, 23 x 32 cm x 2

installation view at Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2009

Vanus (2009)

Hibiscus flowers on paper

Codex Vitae, Palazzo dell’Istruzione, Rovereto, 2011; Drawing Connections,

Siena Art Institute, Siena, 2011; Mirari, Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2009.

Series of works on paper employing fallen hibiscus blossoms,

collected from the ground and immersed into a water solution till they

begin to dissolve – forming a viscous substance which then binds them

to the paper.

The results are fragile relief drawings suspended on the edge

of time, displayed within box frames. The title, Vanus, is the Latin term

for “empty, without substance”.

Vanus (2009)

hibiscus flowers on paper (details from series), 23 x 32 cm (35 x 45 cm framed)

Mirari (2008)

c-print mounted on aluminium, 52 x 34 cm

Tracing the Invisible (2010)

Series of inkjet prints on tracing paper

Multipel, Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg, 2012; Multipel, Ystads Konstmuseum,

Ystad, 2012; The Spring Salon 2011, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, 2011;

Tracing the Invisible, Galleri Spegeln, Malmö, 2010.

Tracing the Invisible has its starting point in my experience at

Slottsträdgården, an organic garden in the centre of Malmö, where

I took part in a project initiated by Konstfrämjandet, which aimed

to foster a dialogue between contemporary artists and ordinary

working environments.

My intention was to explore repetitive manual activities, where

the mind is at rest and a higher level of bodily awareness develops.

I began by filming the gardeners at work and gradually my attention

shifted to the garden as a whole, attempting to reveal that which

remains mostly invisible or unnoticed.

From the collected video material, I selected a number of still

images, which were then printed in small scale onto tracing paper,

resembling contact sheets from medium format negatives. The works

were created employing a faulty inkjet printer, delivering an excessive

amount of ink onto an unsuitable type of paper, thus granting them a

similar quality to miniature watercolour paintings. As in a recent series

of video works, I was interested in the use of an accident, a technical

fault, to point to a deeper layer of reality.

The fluidity of the ink, combined with the fragility and tactile quality

of tracing paper, contributes to the images a sensory feel, a texture.

Realistic details and references to a specific time and place are diluted,

transcending the ordinariness of the subject matter and inviting viewers

to relate to the works through their imagination.

Tracing the Invisible (2010)

series of inkjet prints on tracing paper

30 x 21 cm each (31 x 23 cm framed)

Tracing the Invisible (2010) and Amidst (2008)

installation view at Galleri Spegeln, Malmö, 2010

Mergere (2010)

Mixed media installation

Mergere, Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, 2010.

“Mergere is a Latin term meaning ‘to dip, plunge’, from which

the expression ‘to immerse oneself’ derives. The exhibition touches

on themes such as longing and fleetingness, aloneness and intimacy.

A gorging consumption, followed by an inevitable and recurring loss,

lies at the core of the work. Physical presence is consistently recalled.

A site-specific installation (Vessel) fills the first room with its fragile

entanglement. Threads wind themselves across and close to one

another, clinging to the lamps and holding fast. On the walls hang

contours of bodies, empty and yet filled with infinity. […]

The numbers imprinted in the furthest room function as a code

to a private world. Collected from queer dating sites, they tell various

men’s age, height, weight and penis size. As tattooed onto skin, the

numerical combinations become one with the wall. […] The codes

become temporary epitaphs, memorials of ephemeral encounters.

[…] The slide projected in a corner, evocative of outer space infinity,

is itself a blown-up imprint of skin.

In the video installation Transire the foliage of a tree flickers in

distorted colours. It becomes a passage. The tones create a peculiar

dreamlike feel. It is a work that connects the other two rooms: those

empty silhouettes and the men whose data we have just perused could

indeed meet here. The viewer feels akin to a voyeur, brushing against

strangers, while overall lies a yearning for connection and wholeness.”

Anna Sandberg, art historian and curator, 2010

Vessel (2010)

aerosol string on lamps and floor

installation view at Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, 2010

Untitled (Cruiser) (2010)

inkjet print on registered paper, 24 x 32 cm

Mergere (2010)

various elements from the installation at Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, 2010:

Untitled (2010), wall-mounted inverted nickel towelrail, 23 x 2,5 cm

Held (2010), natural dyes on watercolour paper, 30 x 42 cm (35 x 48 cm framed)

Modulus (2010), series of heat transfer prints on gallery wall (detail), dimensions variable

Modulus (2010)

series of monoprints on wall (detail), size variable

Mergere (2010)

various elements from the installation at Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, 2010:

Untitled (2010), wall-mounted vintage funerary poster, 70 x 50 cm

In Finitum (2010), single slide projection (installation view and detail), size variable

Untitled (Blue Signal) (2010-2011)

Mixed media installation

Passeggero, Galleria Civica at Giardino Santa Chiara, Trento, 2011;

Ljussättning av det Offentliga Stadsrummet, Pildammsparken, Malmö, 2010.

“The traffic light, with its blue hue marked by the hypnotizing

insistence of its rhythm, becomes the symbol of an autonomous reign

whose two poles are infinite distance and immediate presence. It is a

sentinel, a regulatory beacon for special traffic, which helps introduce

us to a state of inner tranquillity and contemplation.

Matteo Rosa’s blue traffic light demonstrates that, despite its

placement in a natural environment, it is an object conceived above

all in relation to people and their habitat. It is a means to awaken

feeling, and break the automatisms of a society overly focused on

doing instead of perceiving, on exterior rules instead of intimate

understanding and interior reflection. It is an instrument that articulates

time: the time to pause in the face of nature, with no scope other than

that of unhurried observation. It is a plea to ‘unwind’, to open one’s

self to an enchanted and poetic attitude towards life.”

Marco Tomasini, art critic and curator, 2011

Untitled (Blue Signal) (2010-2011)

installation view at Pildammsparken, Malmö, 2010

Untitled (Blue Signal) (2010-2011)

installation view at Giardino Santa Chiara, Trento, 2011

photo: Hugo Muñoz

Untitled (Weeping Light) (2012)

Proposal for public intervention

Light-based public artwork conceived for the City of Malmö.

My proposal includes the use of an ordinary lamp post, like those

currently employed on the streets of Malmö, altered in such a way that

water would drip from the inside of its lantern down to the ground.

The artwork may initially appear as the result of an accident,

blurring the boundaries to its urban placement and drawing the

passers-by’s attention.

The shape of the chosen lamp vaguely resembles the head

of a shower, allowing for a humorous take on the work – connecting

two different objects by means of their looks, as in children’s magical

thinking or in dreams.

On a further level, the dripping water would be reminiscent of the

passage of time, while the fixed light source would point to an inherent,

ever-present quality of stillness.

Embody (2011-2013)

Series of watercolours on paper

The Leaving, The Boiler Room Gallery, Oslo, 2013;

Embody, Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup, 2011.

As from the depths of consciousness, images rise to the surface

and appear on paper. Sometimes they bear resemblance to figures,

like theatrical characters in a play of the imagination, other times to

abstract patterns and nature. Often the works present something that

is just barely there, very lightly, as if on the point to dissolve again and

be brushed away by the wave of time. Like traces, tracks of events or

thoughts; temporary apparitions, unfolding to then eventually return

one with the whole. The paper employed also reflects this fragility,

being lightweight and folding slightly at the touch of the wet

paintbrush, like a crumpling autumn leaf.

Embody (Nos. 6, 11, 12) (2011-2013)

watercolour on paper, 21 x 28 cm each (30 x 37 cm framed)

Embody (2011-2013)

installation view at Galleri Arnstedt, Östra Karup, 2011

Embody (No. 8) (2011-2013)

watercolour on paper, 21 x 28 cm each (30 x 37 cm framed)

Embody (2011-2013)

installation view at The Boiler Room Gallery, Oslo, 2013

Embody (No. 16) (2011-2013)

watercolour on paper, 21 x 28 cm each (30 x 37 cm framed)

Wings (2013)

watercolour on paper, 15 x 21 cm (30 x 37 cm framed)

The Leaving (2013)

watercolour on paper, 21 x 30 cm (30 x 39 cm framed)

Incorporeal (2014)

Series of watercolours on paper

Yearn, Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014.

Stemming from the previous Embody series, Incorporeal

progresses its probing into perception and imagination, approaching

the body as felt from within, drawing connections between colour and

sensation, transparency and memory. It touches on themes such as

desire, intimacy and dissolution, while some homoerotic undertones

emerge more strongly. The images point at a universal longing for

union with existence, a pre-verbal unmediated connection with

the substance of life.

Incorporeal (Nos. 12, 5, 9) (2014)

watercolour on paper, 21 x 30 cm each (30 x 39 cm framed)

Incorporeal (Nos. 4, 8) (2014)

watercolour on paper, 21 x 30 cm each (30 x 39 cm framed)

Incorporeal (2014)

installation view at Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014

Incorporeal (No. 3) (2014)

watercolour on paper, 21 x 30 cm each (30 x 39 cm framed)

Untitled (2013)

Diluted Chinese ink on tissue paper

Dimensions variable

During my residency at AIT (Arts Initiative Tokyo) in 2013,

I had the opportunity to experiment with watercolour and Chinese ink

on Japanese paper, as well as research the ancient marbling technique

of suminagashi. This craft relates to one of the core interests in my

practice: a fascination for images and objects that form themselves,

with little or no external manipulation, echoing natural processes.

From my experiments, a series of small-scale paper sculptures

emerged: ordinary paper towels partly soaked in black ink and folded

into irregular shapes – abstract forms resembling leaves or fabric,

poised on the threshold of nothingness.

Untitled (2013)

diluted Chinese ink on tissue paper (details from series), dimensions variable

Rise (2014)

Diluted Chinese ink on crumpled office paper, wire and nails

Yearn, Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014.

“As still as a halted rain, Matteo Rosa’s installation Rise fills

Sjöbo Konsthall. In form it is reminiscent of meteorite fragments.

A hail of space rocks that shattered upon entering the Earth’s

atmosphere.

The approach is typical for Rosa, born and raised in Italy yet

based in Malmö since his graduation from Malmö Art Academy. The

materials he chooses are simple, the style seemingly unassuming. It is

an art that possesses a fairly rare ease. Perhaps it is precisely because

of this that it demands a concentrated vision, in counterbalance to

everyday life’s flickering flow of images and information. […]

In a couple of small-scale watercolours, sinuous lines are

interwoven into organisms that seekingly branch out. One of the

pieces is called Yearn, a title which has appropriately lent its name

to the entire exhibition. Since in counterbalance to the subtlety, there

is a longing that pulls and pries the brushstrokes and splashing ink.

It is expressed most clearly in a series of images where eroticism is

laid bare through bulging silhouettes. Tryingly, he approaches that

point where the boundary between different bodies and individuals

is dissolved. Between self and other. Therein lies beauty.”

Carolina Söderholm, art critic (Sydsvenskan, November 2014)

Rise (2014)

installation view at Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014

Rise (2014)

installation view at Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014

Rise (2014)

installation view and detail at Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014

Rise (2014)

installation view at Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014

Rise (2014)

details from the installation at Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014

Grow (2014)

watercolour on laid paper, 12 x 16 cm (25 x 29 cm framed)

installation view at Sjöbo Konsthall, Sjöbo, 2014

Yearn (2014)

watercolour on laid paper, 9 x 14 cm (21 x 27 cm framed)

Clear (2015-2016)

Site-specific installation

Paese di guerra, paese in guerra, Fort Colle Delle Benne, Levico Terme, 2016;

Dold konst, Slottsparken, Malmö, 2015.

“On the edge of the wood that through the decades has formed

on the surroundings of Fort Colle delle Benne, almost as a siege

created by nature, a group of white flags waves in the wind.

No explanations are offered to the viewers observing them

from one of the windows on the upper floors of the Austro-Hungarian

fortification: the delicate mark of this installation stands before our eyes

as if to suggest memories, feelings and whispers of a past that marked

the history of Valsugana more than a century ago.

The reference to surrender is self-evident, yet Rosa seems to

want to take us further, and lead us to a basic, as much as fascinating,

everydayness: that of laundry hanging in the sun, of light reflected

through the hours in different shades, and of daily life happening

all around. The reassuring call to the predictability of a common

existence, confronted with the drama and cruelty of the Great War

evoked by the setting, makes the simplicity of the work, in its

radical cleanness, more than ever incisive.”

Paola Vettorazzi, art historian, curator and art therapist, 2016

Clear (2015-2016)

installation view at Fort Colle Delle Benne, Levico Terme, 2016

Clear (2015-2016)

details from the installation at Slottsparken, Malmö, 2015

Whole (2016-2018)

Series of twelve ink drawings on watercolour paper

En del av, Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2016; Tapestry: Changing Concepts,

City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 2021.

“Matteo Rosa’s work may appear quiet at first, yet it creates

majestic spaces for the mind to rest in, for those who take the time.

In his practice, he often makes use of nature, to again and again pose

questions about form and formlessness, about the coming into being

of things and coincidences, consciousness and the unconscious.

Can creation happen by itself or need there be an intention and plan?

In nature, creation seems to happen automatically, and as an artist,

Rosa often attempts to let chance play a major role, thus placing

himself in the background.

In his exhibition at Gallery S:t Gertrud, Matteo Rosa presents

three new works, all of which clearly relate to his previous production.

Whole is a series of drawings that begins with lightness and ease, and

gradually shifts towards blackness. The motifs seem to be taken from

nature, yet could as well depict something from inside the body or in

outer space. We see patterns that have seemingly been swiftly drawn,

and allow our own thoughts to fill them with meaning and order. In an

untitled monotype, the artist has allowed leaves to soak in water and

graphite, to then let them leave an imprint on paper. An abstract image,

in which the texture of the paper and the pigmented marks come into

focus. As in Whole, the artist invites us to meditate for a while over

what it is we see, and what it may touch within ourselves. […]”

Isabell Dahlberg, author, art historian and musician, 2016

Whole (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4) (2016-2018)

series of ink drawings on watercolour paper, 20 x 20 cm each

Whole (Nos. 5, 6, 7) (2016-2018)

series of ink drawings on watercolour paper, 20 x 20 cm each

Whole (2016-2018)

installation view at Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2016

Whole (Nos. 6, 7) (2016-2018)

series of ink drawings on watercolour paper, 20 x 20 cm each

installation view at Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2016

Whole (No. 8) (2016-2018)

series of ink drawings on watercolour paper, 20 x 20 cm each

Whole (No. 9) (2016-2018)

series of ink drawings on watercolour paper, 20 x 20 cm each

Whole (Nos. 1, 10) (2016-2018)

installation view at Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2016

Whole (Nos. 11, 12) (2016-2018)

series of ink drawings on watercolour paper, 20 x 20 cm each

Untitled (2016)

graphite, ink and natural dyes on paper, 27 x 27 cm (29,5 x 29,5 cm framed)

detail and installation view at Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2016

Untitled (2017)

Site-specific intervention

Arteles Open Studios, Arteles Creative Center, Haukijärvi, 2017.

During my residency at Arteles Creative Center in Finland

in summer 2017, prompted by the weather conditions, I approached

an idea that I had long considered: allowing images to form themselves

through the action of rainwater.

I am often drawn to water: for its cleansing power, releasing,

clearing and letting go of the past; as a natural force giving rise to

chance formations and patterns; and finally for its relation to time

and impermanence, making it apparent how all life forms eventually

dissolve and return one with the whole. I operated mostly on a small

scale, testing different materials, both as independent pieces and

in situ – in relation to the surrounding forest as well as to the

“public space” of a notice board on a countryside road.

With some of my final pieces, as the initially forecasted rain

failed to return, I took a more active stance and started investigating

the use of channelled water. Thus the images became somewhat

more directed and expressive.

Untitled (2017)

compressed charcoal on gessoed boards affixed to trees, 20 x 20 cm each

site-specific installation at Arteles Creative Center, Haukijärvi, 2017

Untitled (2017)

compressed charcoal on gessoed boards affixed to trees, 20 x 20 cm each

site-specific installation at Arteles Creative Center, Haukijärvi, 2017

Untitled (2017)

compressed charcoal on paper affixed to notice board, 15 x 21 cm

site specific intervention, Haukijärvi, 2017

Untitled (2017)

watercolour and ink on etching paper (detail), 27 x 39 cm

Veil (2016-2018)

Photographic series, dimensions variable

What About Tomorrow?, Art Veine, Rio de Janeiro 2020; Vicino. Non qui,

Galleria Civica, Trento, 2018; En del av, Galleri S:t Gertrud, Malmö, 2016.

“[…] In the work Veil, we also encounter the contemplative

aspects of nature. Rosa presents a slide show of veiled digital

photographs from the woods surrounding the Italian Alpine village

where he grew up. In dreamlike fashion, light and shadow play

through branches or dazzle us like a star, to then dive deep

into the cool darkness.

Matteo Rosa’s artistic practice is pervaded by reflections

on how all things are interconnected, and by the awareness that

even when everything around us is quiet, small and big things are

still happening, both inside and outside our bodies. And that when all

sorts of things are moving and we are bombarded with external stimuli,

it is still possible to find stillness, perhaps in nature, both in our body

and soul.”

Isabell Dahlberg, author, art historian and musician, 2016

Veil (2016-2018)