I always say that I like to offer the public visual itineraries that restore the complexity and ambiguity of the contemporary world. We live in an extremely complex world, while we find it increasingly difficult to understand and manage it because our minds have become hyper-specialised. Tackling an aspect of the contemporary through different languages helps me convey this complexity. I like the contradiction, the border line, the sudden change of point of view that creates visual and mental short circuits in the viewer. I'll give you some examples: for the Archaeological Museum of Venice I created a video installation in which I blew up the very works that the museum is responsible for conserving, obviously reproductions, but the spectator was faced with the original masterpiece and at the same time the representation of his disappearance, of his loss. For the Curitiba Biennial in Brazil, alongside the cannons and shiny armor kept in the Paranaense Museum, I exhibited the "other weapons" that made the difference during the conquest of the so-called New World: the viruses and bacteria that the Europeans used as real bacteriological weapons of mass extermination to accelerate the conquest. At the last Venice Biennale, for the Cameroon pavilion, I did a job on the water problem that threatens both Venice and Cameroon, even if in an inversely proportional way, the job consisted in hiding the marble well in the cloister of the Guggenheim High School by building a "city" of perforated bricks around it.
Therefore, I do not pursue a style or a "trademark", but I like to intervene in the exhibition spaces by creating a dialogue between them and the work. Clearly over the years I have built my own expressive "grammar" that creates a link between the various works.
There are many artists who have influenced and still influence my work, but I can recall the two or three passages that I consider fundamental: at the beginning the encounter with American Abstract Expressionism was decisive, later I was very impressed by Conceptual Art and Arte Povera. When I approached photography instead I looked a lot at the work of Andreas Gursky, Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson. As for the video there would be many others, but I'll mention the most important: Bill Viola.
Art can and must go where it wants. In contemporary art there are no "trendy colors" of the year. Art is an infinite frontier territory in which you have to expect surprises at every meter of conquest, as soon as you think you have understood a direction, a trend, in fact, those are immediately radically called into question. It is the beautiful and the difficult of art.
Matteo Mezzadri (Parma, 1973) began his self-taught artistic career in the mid-nineties. After a degree in political science at the faculty of Bologna and a master's degree in communication design at the Milan polytechnic, he devoted himself completely to artistic research and photography. In 2009, thanks to a collaboration with the Zimmerfrei group of artists and a residency in New York, he approaches video art which immediately becomes an essential tool. His poetics in those years focused on the concept of Architecture of ties, with particular attention to the large contemporary metropolises and the complex relational dynamics that characterize them. In 2012 he began the photographic series entitled "le Città minime", a work exhibited for the first time at the MIA in Milan and then in numerous galleries, museums and exhibitions in Italy and abroad, such as the prestigious European Month of Photography in Bratislava in 2014 The photographic series will receive various awards and recognitions, including the Sony World Photography Awards of the WPO in London again in 2014. In 2016 he was invited by the curator prof. Massimo Ferrari to create the first monumental installation of the "Minimal Cities" at La Casa del Mantegna (MN). Also in 2016 dates back to the meeting with the critic and curator Sandro Orlandi Stagl, thanks to which he will participate in the Italian edition of the Italy-China biennial, at the Arca di Vercelli and, subsequently, in the Chinese edition of the same biennial at the Plastic Beijing Cultural Park. In 2022 he created the large public art installation at the Porta di Milano, an exhibition space set up at the Malpensa airport, and, again in 2022, he was invited by the National Pavilion of Cameroon to create a large installation for the 59th Biennale d' art of Venice, in 2023 the personal exhibition "Rethinking the City" at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan.
2023 RIPENSARE LA CITTA’, La Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano, Italy, curatori: Matteo Pacini, Sergio Sabbadini
2022 RETHINK THE CITY, La Porta di Milano - Aeroporto di Malpensa, Milano-Malpensa, Italy, curatori: Matteo Pacini, Luciano Bolzoni
NOVARA ARCHITETTURA - CITTA' MINIME, Chiesa di San Giovanni, Novara, Italy, curatrice: Chiara Alberghina
SULL'ORLO DEL CIELO, RE-GENESIS, mostra bipersonale, curatori: Sandro Orlandi Stagl e Chiara Franceschini, Museo Diocesano di Vicenza
2021 EXTERNAL LANDSCAPE, Museo Civico "LA CASA del SUONO, Parma, Italy, curatori: Chiara Canali, Camilla Mineo
SULL'ORLO DEL CIELO, RE-GENESIS, mostra bipersonale, curatore: Sandro Orlandi Stagl, ARTantide Galery, Verona
2019 L'OPERA E LA POLVERE, ROPE Art Gallery, Modena, Italy, curatrice: Federica Pedricca
2017 NOOSFERA, Artantide Art Gallery, Verona, Italy, curatore: Sandro Orlandi Stagl
2016 ARTE e ARCHITETTURA, LE CITTÀ MINIME, Casa del Mantegna, Mantova, Italy, curators: Massimo Ferrari, Claudia Tinazzi, Luigi Spinelli
2015 LE CITTÀ MINIME, Dark Room Gallery, Carpi, Italy, curatrice: Chiara Iemmi
EXTERNAL LANDSCAPE, Mirabilia Gallery, Reggio Emilia, Italy, curatrice: Chiara Iemmi
2012 COME UNA BARCA NEL BOSCO, PAV - Parco Arte Vivente, Torino, curatore: Silvio Valpreda
TIMERS, Galleria Scatolabianca, Milano, curator: Martina Cavallarin
2011 A.T.O. All Things Organic, Palazzo Turchi di Bagno, Ferrara, curator: Gilberto Pellizzola
COLLETTIVE (selezione)
2022 59° BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, Padiglione del Camerun, curatori: Sandro Orlandi Stagl e Paul Emmanuel Loga Mahop
ISOLA PROSSIMA, Ex Monastero di San Secondo, Isola della Polvese - Perugia, curatore: Matteo Pacini
Museu da Arte de Blumenau, Brazil
2020 ARTEOLOGIA, OLTRE L'ETICA, Museo Naturalistico Archeologico di Vicenza
2019 14° BIENNALE D'ARTE DI CURITIBA, Museo Paranaense, Curitiba, Brasile, curatore: Massimo Scaringella
VISUALI ITALIANE, Roonee 247 fine arts, Tokyo, Giappone, curatore: Mino Di Vita
MIRADAS COMPARTIDAS, Centro Hispanoamericano, l'Habana, Cuba, curatori: Alain Cabrera, Mino Di Vita
2018 ARTEOLOGIA, Museo Archeologico Nazionale,Venezia, Italy, curatore: Sandro Orlandi Stagl
PROSPETTIVE EMERGENTI, Palacio de Lombillo, l'Habana, Cuba, curatore: Alain Cabrera, Mino Di Vita
FOTOGRAFIA CONTEMPORANEA, Villa Brandolini, Pieve di Soligo (TV), curatore: Carlo Sala
EQUILIBRI ARTISTICI, Rope Contemporary Art Gallery, Modena, Italy, curatrice: Federica Pedricca
2017 PERCORSO ARTE ETICA, Artantide Art Gallery, Verona, Italy, curatore: Sandro Orlandi Stagl
2016 BIENNALE CINA - ITALIA ,The No.3 Plastic Cultural Park, Beijing (CHN), curatori: Sandro Orlandi Stagl, Mian Bu
GROWING, M-Contemporary art gallery, curatrice: Federica Pedricca, Reggio Emilia
ANARTOMY, M-Contemporary art gallery, curatrice Federica Pedricca, Reggio Emilia
2015 BIENNALE ITALIA - CINA, ARCA - Museo Arte Contemporanea di Vercelli, Vercelli (Italy), curatori: Sandro Orlandi Stagl, Mian Bu
LOCUS LOCI, Sovversione di geografie personali, Villa Terzoli, Brebbia (VA)curatori: Eleonora Castagna e Michela Estrafallaces
VIDEOART YEARBOOK, Centro per l'arte contenporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, curatori: Renato Barilli, Silvia Grandi
RESISTENZA e ARTE, eredità e contemporaneità, Museo Civico di Correggio (Italy), curatori: Salvatore Trapani, Elisabetta Del Monte
2014 EUROPEAN MONTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY, Dom umenia | Kunsthalle Bratislava, Námestie SNP 12, Bratislava, curatore: Michael Benson
SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS, Somerset House, Londra (UK)
THE BLIND PILOTS PROJECTS, Thessaloniki (GR)
OTHERSCREEN (movie theater romm/basement), The Others, Ex Carcere LE NUOVE, Torino, curatrice: scatolabianca
AQUAE MUNDI, Fusion Art Gallery, Torino, curators: Roberto Mastroianni e Walter Vallini
SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS, Liverpool ONE, Liverpool (UK)
VIDEOART YEARBOOK – IX edition 2014, l'Annuario della Video Arte italiana, Baologna, curatori: Renato Barilli, Guido Bartorelli
M.O.O.N., Musei Civici Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, curatrice: Chiara Iemmi
2013 PALEOCONTEMPORANEA, Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Napoli, curatrice: Marcella Ferro
VIDEOART YEARBOOK – VIII edition 2013, l'Annuario della Video Arte italiana, Bologna, curatori: Renato Barilli, Guido Bartorelli
VERTICALITÀ- CAMeC (Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea), La Spezia, curatori: Walter Vallini e Roberto Mastroianni
LIVING IN LIFT – Castel dell'Ovo, Napoli, curators: Walter Vallini e Roberto Mastroianni
2012 L'IMMAGINE DEL CORPO - La Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano, curatrice: Cecilia Guida
TERRITORIO-UOMO-TERRITORIO - Museo delle Scienze, Torino, curatori: Walter Vallini, Silvio Valpreda
PIXEL - La nuova generazione della videoarte in Italia, Pala Riviera, San Benedetto del Tronto (AP),curatore: Giovanni Viceconte
VIDEOMINUTO - International festival of 1 minute videos, Centro per l'arte contemporanea LUIGI PECCI, Prato
2011 ELEMENTI, Galleria L.I.B.R.A., Catania, Curatrice: Beatrice Buscaroli
QUOTIDIANA 2011, Palazzo Trevisan, Padova, curatrice: Stefania Schiavon
2010 THE STATE OF THE ART, Accademia id Romania in Roma, Roma, curatrice: Luisa Conte
HERE WE ARE, il luogo è sempre specifico, PAC (Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea), Ferrara, curator: Martina Angelotti
DIGITALIA, Centro Culturale Altinate, Padova
