Matheus Rocha Pitta

(this page was last updated in August 2018)

Tiradentes, Brazil, 1980.
Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Represented by Athena Contemporânea, Sprovieri and Carlos Carvalho Gallery.

PIPA 2012 Finalist.
PIPA 2011, 2013 and 2016 nominee.

“Over a short period of time and through a number of different projects, Matheus Rocha Pitta established interests and strategies which allows us to identify – in a work that grows in density with each new creation -, the critical enunciation on the exchange mechanisms that rule ordinary life. The artist is driven, in particular, by the wish to explore and exhibit the commodity – anything produced by human labour and towards which there is an unswerving desire to possess – as an indication of the paradoxes that such interchanges contain or engender. Without recurring to the discursive enunciations of disciplines that consider merchandise as a frequent object of investigation (economy, philosophy, politics), he articulates objects and images invented by him to generate knowledge which does not fit in those fields of study,” writes the curator and art critic Moacir dos Anjos about the artist’s work.

Artworks

Biography

Critical Texts

Notes for a new political economy
Moacir dos Anjos

Over a short period of time and through a number of different projects, Matheus Rocha Pitta established interests and strategies which allows us to identify – in a work that grows in density with each new creation -, the critical enunciation on the exchange mechanisms that rule ordinary life. The artist is driven, in particular, by the wish to explore and exhibit the commodity – anything produced by human labour and towards which there is an unswerving desire to possess – as an indication of the paradoxes that such interchanges contain or engender. Without recurring to the discursive enunciations of disciplines that consider merchandise as a frequent object of investigation (economy, philosophy, politics), he articulates objects and images invented by him to generate knowledge which does not fit in those fields of study. The two works presented in the exhibition Rendez-vous are based on this agenda in construction.

In B.O. (Boletim de Ofertas [Bulletin of Offers]), product of daily consumption are stripped of its everyday use value by means of incisions from where he removes matter, opening in it free spaces which are prepared to potentially receive and hide anything that is worthwhile transporting without being noticed (the reference to methods of drugs smuggling into territories or places where they are forbidden is here very clearly put). The exchange value of the material illegally carried, greater than the merchandise which may now transport it, suggests that the annulment of the usefulness of something can produce, as its counterpart, the creation of wealth which is not, however, socially acknowledged.

By photographing these objects and inserting their images into the art field, Matheus Rocha Pitta creates the means to grant them – at least regarding their existence as an image and despite the social interdiction evoked by their new usage -, a greater exchange value than when they were ordinary commodities. However, when distributing these images for free (assembled in printed folders as discount goods offered in supermarkets), once again he annuls the worth of the modified products. Rocha Pitta demonstrates – through operations which are presented and explained by images -, the arbitrary nature of traded values in society, dependent of shared conventions and, simultaneously, of the power that some have to change them.
In the second work presented in the exhibition – part of the series Figuras de Conversão (Conversion Figures) –, the artist shifts the focus from the commodity itself to the fact that it is constantly moving from physical and symbolical places. In the series, groups of photographs on the wall and objects set over the floor associate themselves to organize narratives of exchange of positions and meanings, subverting the order in which one expects that things in the world be visually presented. In each gathering of three images, one describes a person carrying plastic bags full of products which are bought and consumed in everyday life (food, hygiene items, among other products necessary to the reproduction of life) and another, of identical size, captures the moment in which the bags are placed on the floor, situation when the consumer detaches him/herself from that which they will yet consume. In the third and largest photograph of each of the groups, the bags which were previously full of things are now empty, connected to each other by an adhesive tape and forming, in this way, a huge vessel. In its interior, the person who carried the bags is now upside down and naked.

The position of the first two images in each grouping already suggests a distance from the vastly adopted norm of the visual representation of an event; the way in which they are displayed fissures the chronological order of the unimportant and absurd action they form with the third photograph. The course of the disappearance of the clothes which dressed the persons and the merchandise that were in the bags they held is not, furthermore, subject of any reference, constituting a gap in the narrative which is not at any time explained. As is not given the clarification on how persons can occupy the place of the coomodities they were once transporting.

The relation of the images on the wall with the objects over the floor in front of them only enhances the artist’s intention to extract, from the examination of a circuit by him invented, knowledge on the nature of exchanges which have as purpose the generation and distribution of wealth. Placed on the floor, each piece of clothes that were used by the persons in the photographs is filled, where before were the bodies, by commodities that were – in the first images of each grouping – inside the bags they carried. When extending the photographed narratives to the objects that were their models, Matheus Rocha Pitta converts the image into a thing and makes people from products, exhibiting, without in any moment willing to explain it, the idea of indifferentiation among different things, central to the establishment of a general exchange value between different commodities – making notes for a new political economy.

Curriculum

Education
1998 – 2000
History, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil
2002 – 2004
Philosophy, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Solo Exhibitions
2016
– “Golpe de Graça”, Casa França Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2015
– “No Hay Pan”, Gluck 50, Milan, Italy
– “ASSALTO”, Athena Contemporânea, Copacabana, Brazil
– “Primeira Pedra”, Mendes Wood, São Paulo, Brazil
2014
– “The Agreement”, Sprovieri, London, UK
– “Experimental Faith”, Progetti, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2013
– “L’Accordo”, Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Italy
– “Golpe de Graça”, Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Nau, Progetti”, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2012
– “Conversão”, Mendes Wood, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Dois Reais”, Paco Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Giudizio Universale”, Solo Project Artissima, Turin, Italy
2011
– “Provisional Heritage”, Sprovieri, London, UK
2010
– “FF#2”, Progetti, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “FF,” Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Galeria de Valores”, Centro Cultural Banco do Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2009
– “Drive Thru # 2”, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil
– “SPROVIERI”, 23 Heddon Street, London, UK
– “SPROVIERI”, Project Room, ARCO, Madrid, Spain
2008
– “Drive Thru # 1”, Sprovieri Progetti, London, UK
2007
– “Jazida”, Galeria Millan, São Paulo, Brazil
2006
– “(dado)x”, Centro Cultural São Paulo, Brazil
– “Drive-In”, Novembro Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2004
– “Bolsa Pampulha”, Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
2002
– “Três páginas da topografia facial”, Projeto Castelinho, Castelinho do Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2002
– Castelinho do Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2001
– “Projeto para uma nova iluminação do Paço Imperial”, Pça XV e Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Group Exhibitions
2016
– “What Separate Us”, Brazilian Embassy, London, UK
– “Ao Amor do Público: Doações Recentes”, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2015
– “Aparições”, Caixa Cultural Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Coleções 10”, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Quarta Feira de Cinzas”, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “A queda do céu”, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Apodi69”, Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil
2014
– “El Ranchito”, Matadero Madrid, Spain
– “The Great Acceleration”, 9th Taipei Biennial, Taipei, Taiwan
– Premio EDP nas Artes, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Josephine Baker e Le Corbusier no Rio, um caso transatlântico”, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2013
– “Hybrid Naples: L’ordine Delle Idee Deve Procedere Secondo L’ordine Delle Cose”, Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Italy
– “Artesur”, Collective Fictions, Nouvelles Vagues, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
– “Avante Brasil”, Kunst Im Tunnel, Düsseldorf, Germany
– “Blind Field”, Krannert Art Museum (KAM), Illinois, IL, USA
2012
– “What Now?”, Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporain, Paris, France
– “Pipa Prize”, Museu de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro (MAM), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Trienal Poli”, Gráfica de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2011
– “Um Outro Lugro”, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
– “RendezVous”, Institut d’Art Contemporain, Lyon, France
– “Os Dez Primeiros Anos”, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Estou Aqui (I Am Here)”, Galeria Marília Razuk, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Rendez-vous 11”, IAC, Institut d’art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes, Villeurbanne, France
– “Mix The Path”, Heidigalerie, Nantes, France
– 29ª Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Selected Works”, Palacio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
2010
– “Há sempre um copo de mar para o homem navegar”, 29ª Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Convivências”, Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, Brazil
– “Primeira E Última, Notas Sobre O Monumento [first And Last, Notes On The Monument]”, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil
2009
– “Neues Museum”, Basso Studio, Berlin, Germany
– “After Utopia”, Centro per l’arte contemporaneo Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
– “Coleção Mam Ba | 50 Anos De Arte Brasileira”, MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
– “Nova Arte Nova”, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, CCBB, São Paulo, Brazil
2008
– “Nova Arte Nova”, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Passagens Secretas”, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
– “SPROVIERI”, 23 Heddon Street, London, UK
– “É claro que você sabe do que estou falando”, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Seja Marginal Seja Herói”, Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris, France
– “Turistas Volver!”, Galeria Carminha Macedo, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
– “Panorama de Arte Brasileira”, Alcalá 31, Madrid, Spain
– “Múltiplos”, Galeria Murilo Castro, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
– “Fotoencontro 08”, Galeria Mercedes Viegas Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2007
“-Panorama de Arte Brasileira”, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM), Brazil
– “Jogos Visuais”, Centro Cultural da Caixa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Ligações cruzadas”, CDMAC, Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura, Fortaleza, Brazil
– “Salão de Abril”, Museu de Artes da Universidade Federal do Ceará-Mauc, Fortaleza, Brazil
2006
– “Paradoxos Brasil”, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo; Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro; Centro Cultural Dragão do Mar, Fortaleza, Brazil
– “Um século de arte brasileira”, Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo; MAM, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2005
– “Além da Imagem” Centro Cultural Telemar, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2004
– “Posição 2004”, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2002
– “Artefoto”, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2001
– “Uma Geração Em Trânsito”, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Awards and Residencies
2016-2017
– Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany residency
2015
– The Politics of Food, residency at Delfina Foundation, London
– Art and Heritage Award, IPHAN-Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2011
– First Place for photography on 1st Itamaraty Prize for Contemporary Art, Brasilia, Brazil
2010
– XI Marc Ferrez Photography Prize, prize awarded for the BO (Boletim de Ofertas) Premio Mostras de Artistas no Exterior, PBAC, Bienal Foundation, São Paulo, Brazil
2008
– 47º Salão de Pernambuco, a 10 months grant to develop the project Drive Thru # 2, Recife Illy Sustain Art Prize, ARCO8, Madrid, Spain
2007
– Acquisition prize of 14º Salão da Bahia, Salvador, with the video Common Stocks Iberê Camaro Grant, two-months residency at the Blanton Art Museum, Austin, TX, USA
2003
– 27º Salão de Arte Nacional de Belo Horizonte, Bolsa Pampulha, A year residency in, that culminates with a solo show at Museu de Arte da Pampulha, BH, MG, Brazil
– 1999 Rewarded 10th place of category of photography of Prize Rio Jovem Artista, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Collections
– Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy
– Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte Cultura, Fortaleza, Brazil
– Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Coleção Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil
– Fondazione Nomas, Rome, Italy
– Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Italy
– Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection– MAM, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Museum of Modern Art Bahia (MAM BA), Salvador, Brazil
– Museum of Modern Art São Paulo (MAM SP), São Paulo, Brazil
– Museum of Modern Art Rio de Janeiro (MAM RJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Maison Europenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
– Itaú Cultural Collection, Sao Paulo, Brazil
– Rivoli Castle, Turin, Italy

Bibliography
– HEISER, Jörg. “Focus: Matheus Rocha Pitta”, in Frieze issue 149, London, september 2012
– V. SMALL, Irene. “Openings: Matheus Rocha Pitta”, in ARTFORUM summer edition, NY, 2011
– MARTINS, Sérgio Bruno. “Dois Reais”, in DOIS REAIS, exhibition catalogue, Rio de Janeiro, 2012
– “Provisional Circuits”, volante da exposição, Sprovieri, Londres UK, 2011
– PRADILLA, Ileana. “Uma Geração em Trânsito”, exhibition catalogue, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, 2001
– CABAÑAS, Kaira, ‘Matheus Rocha Pitta’, in ARTFORUM, december 2013
– “Epiphany, Exegesis”, in NO HAY PAN, Mousse Publications, Milano 2016
– MOURA, Rodrigo. “Matheus Pérpetuo”, in Bolsa Pampulha 2003-2004
– Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, 2004
– LAGNADO, Lisette. “Bolsa Pampulha: o meio e a formação do artistahoje”, in Bolsa Pampulha 2003-2004,
– DUARTE, Luisa. “Drive In”, exhibition folder, Novembro Arte Contemporânea,January 2006
– OSÓRIO, Luiz Camillo. “Retrato alegórico de uma época em trânsito”, in O Globo, 12th February, 2006
– MOURA, Rodrigo. “Drive-In”, in Art Nexus # 61, jul/ago 2006
– INTERLENGHI, Luiza. “Fundo Falso # 2”, volante da exposição, Progetti, Rio de Janeiro

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