Curator Name: Raffaella Matrone
Residency Dates: September – November 2024
Hometown: Naples, Italy
Lives & Works: London, UK
URL: raffaellamatrone.com | Instagram: @raphpha
Education:
2018 | MA Curating & Collections, Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London
2017 | BA in Economics and Managements for the Arts and Cultural Activities, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Bio/Statement:
Originally from Italy, Raffaella Matrone is a curator, writer and researcher for contemporary art. Currently based in London, she specialises in supporting emerging and established artists, aiming to develop their careers through bespoke management services, curating exhibitions and writing of critical texts for their work, whether independently or through the collaboration with cultural platforms.
As an independent curator, her research focuses on the sense of belonging and identity, exploring the meaning of ‘place’ as a physical and abstract entity that is informed by a relation of people, culture, language and tradition. This interest is currently expanding on the Italian Diaspora and cultures of the South of Italy, including but not limited to traditions and folklore, such as superstition and magic.
Interested in bridging cultures and fostering international dialogue, she has curated exhibitions in the UK, Austria, Germany and Costa Rica. Since 2016, Raffaella collaborates with NOMAD – The Croatian Office for Contemporary Art as Research Assistant. Between 2018 and 2021, she collaborated with Arts Territory (UK/PL) on many projects.
Recent projects include: the exhibitions Order Connection Order and Barbed-Wire Ghost as part of the PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program, Leipzig, Germany (2024); A Foreign Place at D Contemporary, London, UK (2023); HOT MESS 2022 at Kühlhaus, Berlin, Germany (2022); JEMP 2019: Mechanical at the Swiss Church in London, UK with Arts Territory (2019); // at the Cookhouse Gallery, Chelsea College of Arts London, UK (2018); All the World’s a Display II – Beauty Frames at Veinti4/Siete Galerìa, San Josè, Costa Rica (2017); I WAS HERE TOMORROW at Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna, Austria (2016) as part of the BLOCKFREI curatorial residency Curators’ Agenda (2016); Coupé International VOL. THREE – Eva Engelbert and Maja Marković at the French Pavillion, Zagreb, Croatia (2016); and Žižić/Kožul – Recurring Landscapes – Cifte Hammam at the National Gallery of Macedonia, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia (2016).
Raffaella holds an MA in Curating & Collections from Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts London, 2018) and a BA in Economics and Managements for the Arts and Cultural Activities from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2017). She was also part of the first Goldsmiths’ Summer School in Curating the Contemporary at the British School in Rome (2016).
