MATTINA, 2016


Mattina, installing the work at The Goma, Madrid 2016

Mattina, installing the work at The Goma, Madrid 2016


In Mattina, his third solo show at The Goma, Antonio Rovaldi examines the emotional or physical state prior to setting out on a journey, in which the artist’s gaze seems to vanish before our eyes in a series of photographs and a hoard of cuttings from newspapers. The construction of minimal narratives probably inspired by major events (photographed by the artist to convey the sensation of a biographical stockpile) is by no means at variance with the silence of nature which Rovaldi photographs in the early hours of the morning. The vagueness of the texts and the depth of field of the black and white photos from the series “Esistono luoghi dove il sole brilla eternamente” foreclose any proper recognition of the space or the depicted nature. This same abstract quality is equally latent in “I giorni ellenici”, a bronze replica of soles of shoes which the artist finds on beaches and collects. In this exhibition, Antonio Rovaldi wishes to transmit an imprecise mood that mirrors the incipient artistic consciousness. Though used to travelling distances physically (which he generally begins or ends in his studio), the artist also engages with a figurative journey sustained on the intimate potential of images.


Esistono luoghi dove il sole brilla eternamente, global view of the installation, sixteen black and white prints on baryte paper 50 x 36,5 cm each, framed, ed: 3+1 AP, 2016


I giorni ellenici, bronze and iron, 13,5 x 30 x 18 cm, ed: 3+1 AP, 2016


Boots, two black and white prints on baryte paper 39.5 x 26.5 cm each, framed, ed: 3+1 AP, 2016


Lemonade, black and white print on baryte paper 35 x 25 cm, framed, ed: 3+1 AP, 2016


Zack, the mormon engineer, perfomance (matches), 2016



all images © Antonio Rovaldi