LUNGOLINEA is pleased to present MAI-LAND, by Mattia Ozzy B, the artist’s first solo show in Milan.
Whilst the title, MAI-LAND, may refer to the German term for the city of Milan, the artist gives a broader and more conceptually complex meaning to it. It also creates an assonance with the English term ‘My land’ (‘La mia terra’ in Italian), meaning precisely his homeland, where he was born and he lives.
MAI-LAND is an imaginary space (a “non-lieu”, as Augé would have called it) laden with stratified meanings where the artist develops and materalizes his vision, exploring an “invisible city” as a context for research and experimentation.
The exhibition consists of a selection of recent works, made by a collection of objects, pictorial interventions, reclaimed materials, and photographs. The interaction between the works and the environment is configured as a continuous and dynamic dialogue.
In the poetics of MattiaOzzy B., one perceives a marked interest in urban fetishes, discarded objects that here appear decontextualised, charged with a new symbolic value. His work acknowledges the remnants of an overly saturated consumerism, which are the silent witnesses to an often alienating contemporary world.
As curator Arnold Braho pointed out: “The artist’s works can be interpreted as a map that records the passage of time, almost like an industrial map without precise coordinates for orientation, aimed rather at interrogating a dense agglomeration of symbols inscribed in the collective imagination.”
Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition, FREE-WALLS, a catalog that collects a selection of works created by the artist between 2020 and 2024, will also be launched. This is an important legacy to the practice of Mattia Ozzy B., documenting his close dialogue with the urban space and its surfaces.
MAI-LAND will be on view 12-26 October 2024, at LUNGOLINEA, located nearby Milan Central Station. This exhibition is part of the gallery’s ongoing focus on the Italian Post-Graffiti scene, offering the opportunity to delve deeper into the work of a young artist whose research is characterised by his attempt to handle languages and codes typical of the Graffiti Writing experience.