Riccardo Muratori

Born in 1981 in Rimini (Italy)
Lives and works in Venice (Italy)

Trained in Philosophy, Riccardo Muratori’s research focuses on the relationship between the “image” and reality, and on the virtualization process produced by new media and technologies operating at the present stage of advanced capitalism. He studied in Venice at Università Ca’Foscari and in Paris at Paris VIII Saint-Denis and Paris VII Jussieu where he attended a number of seminars held by such prominent figures as Alain Badiou, Jacques Morizot and Jacques Rancière. He graduated in 2006 in Philosophy from Università Ca’ Foscari under the supervision of Umberto Galimberti and Luigi Perissinotto with a dissertation based on Jean Baudrillard’s theories. In his dissertation “Games of Reality and Simulation,” Muratori began to enquire into the “status of the image,” considered - according to linguistic theory - as “signifier” of a “signified” (Saussure). From 2006 to 2009, he attended several courses of Philosophy and Aesthetics held by Giorgio Agamben at the Università IUAV - Faculty of Visual Arts - in Venice. In 2007, stimulated by the study of Phenomenology, he decided to change his research tool embracing at first drawing and then painting. In 2009 he became a teaching assistant (“Drawing” course held by Daniele Bianchi) at Università IUAV - Faculty of Fashion Design (CLADEM) - in Venice. In 2011 he was invited to exhibit his work at the 54th International Art Exhibition “La Biennale di Venezia” at the Italian Pavilion with one of his first pictorial works: The Servant, which was the starting point of a new process intended to produce a psychological theatre of simulacra. Since 2013, he has been Professor of Drawing and Illustration at Università IUAV - Department of Fashion Design, Visual Arts, Theatre in Venice.

Riccardo Muratori writes of his painting on view at KB17: “The female figure, depicted in this painting, could be interpreted as a muse (Aoede), who conceals herself or takes refuge through the instrument which should be the means of proper expression. Her generative force, momentarily suspended, is hidden by melding into her own shadow. The creation of a shield with a guitar is an expression of a phase of latency: does it represent a definitive withdrawal or rather a hiding place from which to launch a decisive attack?”