13/07/2023
Mattia is an urban artist currently working in Plzeň, Czech Republic, former European Capital of Culture (2015), on behalf of the European Capital of Culture 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorizia. He is participating in WALLZ no.4 Street Art Festival, a legacy of the former ECoC, and is officially launching the project Hopscotch. The project is part of the ECOC 2025 programme, within which Nova Gorica and Gorizia will host street artists and muralists, and is organised by ISIG - Institute of International Sociology Gorizia. Mattia is a freelance artist, born in Trieste, who started as a graffiti artist in 1997. He is very active throughout the Friuli region and other parts of Italy, Slovenia and especially internationally, from America to Africa and the Middle East. He works in various media: painting, urban art, installation, calligraphy. His favourite themes are the relationship between memory and identity, human rights, migration, gender equality, and he is interested in dialogue with space, history and the local community. In 2015 and 2016 he created projects for refugees and displaced people in Northern Iraq, in 2019 and 2020 he collaborated with the Italian Cultural Institute in Athens, in 2019 with the Italian Embassy in Nairobi, in 2020 with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Rome and in 2021 with the Italian Cultural Institute in Tirana. In 2017, he launched the Perfect Strangers Library, a project dedicated to ending violence against women. He dedicates a lot of his time to young people, especially those who can not find the right path, and wants to give them back the motivation to choose the right, positive direction in life through art and artistic creation. Pilsen in the Czech Republic is actively developing the legacy of the European Capital of Culture 2015, supporting the cultural, social, tourist and business environment in the region. The main focus is on the development of creative industries, innovation, citizen involvement and strengthening the European dimension through cooperation with foreign partners. As part of the In Pilsen festival, Mattia painted a child and a bird on the facade of a building. "It is a silent dialogue between a child and a bird, a dialogue between man and nature, or a memory of an era. I called it 'Learn to fly'," he said at the end.
