Matete Martini
Pubertà
Matete Martini’s work is an ongoing exploration of human and non-human relationships, queerness and its power to rethink identity. As an artistic practice that began as a study of movement within the human realm, it has become increasingly influenced by photographic processes and an obsession for the idea of the work in progress.
This series of paintings and textile works take fungi and other natural elements as a starting point to explore ideas of human transformation and intersectionality. It reminds us of the VII Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In the epic poem, as soon as Medea, daughter of divine descent, arrives in Corinth, we are made aware that the people of the city have transformed from mushrooms into humans. In Pubertà (puberty), human bodies spring from fungi (Metamorphoses, 7.391) and impersonate rituals of initiation into adulthood. Curiosity, sexual tension, consummation, attention seeking and insecurity, invade every work in a parasitic way to the point of sensual pleasure.
Pubertà will also take the form of a video-performance (April - 9). Echoing the same themes of transformation, intersection and transition, the performance will mimic a cam girl live - a celebration of sensual intimacy in everyday life.
Maria Valeria Biondo
ABOUT
Matete Martini (1994) is an Italian artist living and working in Pordenone, Italy. Her signature style combines thick black lines and powerful tones of blue/red with light fabrics and antique wood panels. The artist has collaborated with queer performers on multiple projects turning performance art into traditional media. Matete recently started a small new fashion brand “Macou Atelier”, and frequently teaches lessons and runs workshops for under eighteens.