Raffaella Cortese is proud to present the second solo show by French artist Mathilde Rosier.

In Mathilde Rosier’s films, performances, installations and paintings, all stories are formulated by dance and music. However, sound, bodily gestures and symbolic motifs narrate without words, so that the stories at first elude rational descriptions, evade direct perception but are real all the same.

Mathilde Rosier’s current show is influenced by her years of experience with dance and physical gestures in relation to the narrative representation of space and time. Having dedicated much of her art practice to the investigation of a possible fusion of the animal realm and the human being, her most recent research is focused on the human figure, especially on the representation of movement. In her latest works she underlines her will to give life to paintings and collages usually strictly related to her performances where sound, body and action combine all together.

Dancers as large-format collages are the setting of the performance which she is going to present for the opening of the gallery exhibition in the space in via Stradella 4. The bodies of the dancers are deconstructed by cut outs, the outlines of which refer to previous or subsequent movements. The figures of the dancers become acrobats and from this concept Rosier has started to work on the idea of tumbling, the art of falling. The notion of falling implies a momentary loss of usual perception, a confusion that leads to a loss of identity. But this fall and this loss being a disruptive moment can also be an opportunity for a renewed understanding, a healing. It is just a question of attitude toward the fall, which can lead to an existential interpretation related to the present socioeconomic condition in France and not just there.

On show at number 7, the live size paintings on paper of the human body falling or falling apart allow the viewer to project on them his own perception of the body, thus, the experience of the painting becomes more physical than intellectual.