Video work capturing sunlight reflecting on seawater. The natural movement of the waves produces myriads of everchanging patterns – ephemeral sparkling cells echoing their dazzling source. In fractions of seconds, they arise and disappear, like a speeded-up recording of countless individual lives, being born to then merge back into the whole. Contemplating the glittering screen has a mesmerising effect. It takes us beyond the particular time and place, evoking an underlying and ever-present dimension.
Almost like a moving painting, the work lends itself to reflection on the philosophical question of the one and the many – the coexistence of unity and plurality – as well as on the Buddhist notion of “emptiness”, according to which all things exist in interdependence with each other, beyond separation. Sigmund Freud’s formulation of the “oceanic”, amongst his writings on mysticism, may also come to mind – which he defined as a feeling of indissoluble bond with the universe, in contrast to the conventional sense of separateness from the external world. Such feeling, characterised by limitlessness, was traced back by Freud to the early phases of the ego, when the infant does not yet distinguish between self and other.
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BIOGRAPHY
Matteo Rosa was born in Italy in 1978 and is currently based in Malmö, Sweden.
He holds a BA (Hons) from Edinburgh College of Art and an MFA from Malmö Art Academy.
At the core of Rosa’s artistic practice is an interest in interconnectedness – the play between form and formlessness, transience and timelessness, imagination and awareness.
Nature and its contemplation are a recurrent theme, pointing to the viewer’s inner stillness. He employs various media, from drawing and painting to photography, video, text and installation.
Over the years his work has been shown at numerous venues, including Kramfors Konsthall, Kramfors (SE), Skånes Konstförening, Malmö (SE), Krognoshuset, Lund (SE), Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm (SE), Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (DK), City Art Centre, Edinburgh (GB), E:ventGallery, London (GB), The Boiler Room Gallery, Oslo (NO), Galleria Civica, Trento (IT) and Viafarini, Milan (IT).
The artist is represented in public collections such as Malmö Art Museum, Scania Regional Council, Public Art Agency Sweden and KORO - Public Art Norway, as well as in multiple private collections across Europe.