Antonio Rovaldi was born in Parma in 1975 and studied art and photography at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) in Milan. His artistic exploration has spanned themes connected with the perception of the landscape through the use of various media. In 2006, he won the New York Prize and, in 2009, was an artist-in-residence at the ISCP in New York. Since 2007, he has chaired the master programme in art and architecture of landscape at NABA, Milan. Among the exhibitions that enjoyed his participation, may we recall his solo show entitled Orizzonte in Italia. Sveglio mare liscio due barche gialle più fumo, held at the Museo Comunale (Casa Lai), Gavoi, Museo MAN, Nuoro; and the group exhibitions Glitch at the PAC, Milan (2014) and Talenti emergenti 2011, Giovane Arte Italiana at the CCC Strozzina, Florence.

– title: Tetto (La mattina rinfresca)

– date: 2006

– medium: C-print on aluminium

– size: 113×153 cm

– description: The work Tetto (La mattina rinfresca) was donated by the artist on the occasion of the Italiani in vacanza exhibit, curated by Pier Luigi Tazzi (2008). In keeping with Rovaldi’s signature style, a key role is given to the landscape, construed through the possibility to give voice to a hidden world. It is a bewildering snapshot, a roof literally ‘hanging’ in a forest that does not seem to be anchored to any solid structure. As the artist explained, this photograph was taken from a long and narrow balcony of a hotel in Bangkok, a building plunged in the lush vegetation of palm trees and the surrounding hectic life: “Like a suicide committed in the hot and humid green foliage of palm trees. A roof that looked like a mock-up…” This tale joins in the author’s practice of envisaging a direct connection with a place: whenever a specific spot is identified by the artist as the location for a possible work, that spot is lived, experienced, crossed, documented. The landscapes captured by Rovaldi always hover slightly between possible and visionary, ordinary and supernatural, description and disclosure.