"Coloniale" by Tonino Mattu.

Oil on canvas 
70 x 60 cm
2020

Tonino Mattu was born in Nuoro in 1979. Self-taught, he trained by studying the old manuals of painting techniques. He currently lives and works in Oristano.

The painting entitled "Coloniale" is an oil on canvas created in March. In the relationship between the background and the shape of a face, the figure of an African woman is outlined, an image based on a shot dating back to the years of the Italian colonial presence in Africa. The painting is a reflection on the concept of territory, understood both in the sense of physical space, which the human being tends to occupy, and in the affective and cultural sense, often defrauded by speculative actions.

The historical awareness of one's past is an indispensable element for understanding our present social and political fabric. The lack of representation of the somatic features of the face, replaced by an earthy and corroded surface, suggests a conceptual reading of the painting, where two-dimensional elements stand out against a partially illuminated background, thus returning a semblance of three-dimensionality to an image that does not aim at a copied representation of reality but to its noumenal intuition.

Project by Olimpia Rospigliosi curated by Bohdan Stupak. Between 14 and 22 July it will be possible to view the works exclusively on appointment at the Studio Rospigliosi in Piazza Borromeo 10 in Milan, Italy.