Interview by Yzabella Zari

Yzabella Zari: Did you grow up in an artistic household?

Francesca Matta: I wouldn’t say artistic household, in a sense where none of my parents were deeply connected to arts. But in a way, everything that was surrounding me while growing up, was somehow shaping me and giving me my own identity. From the way my mother used to pick flowers and dry them out for days, to the endless film rolls that I kept finding in all of my father’s drawers, to the way my grandmother archived and sorted all of her letters, I picked up on those ‘habits’, and found myself doing them today, as if I have parts of them, in me.

YZ: Was there a specific moment in your life that fostered that spark of creativity?

FM: Growing up, I lost a lot. At a very young age, I had to understand how fragile life is. So maybe I wouldn’t say that a specific moment fostered my spark of creativity; it's more about the afterwards of learning to live with a missing piece. It took me time to learn to channel this anger and vulnerability into something else.

YZ: Are your photos based on your own personal life experiences and memories?

FM: When I first started taking pictures, I was trying to satisfy a need, fill a void. Photography was not a hobby for me. I never saw it that way.

I felt that a lot of memories were taken from me, and this fear of not remembering, kept growing inside me.

I started finding comfort by documenting my daily life. Whether by collecting random souvenirs and saving them in a box, to actually photographing moments. I wanted to hang on to it all. I felt like I was gaining control over my life; as if having a physical piece of evidence is proof that this moment happened.

Before knowing it, I was using photography as my main medium to express this fear of forgetting and mostly, to create a parallel universe between what surrounds me and what my fantasies are made of.

YZ: What is your creative process like?

FM: I wouldn’t know how to describe it. I’ve never been comfortable with the technical part (of anything) and settings of my camera. It’s more about following my instinct. I just take what my surroundings are offering and try to capture and edit in a way that resembles me. Sometimes, if I already have a vision, I draw a quick sketch of this “mental photograph”. And somehow, it helps to get there.

YZ: How did you photograph the model in the water? Was that a difficult shot to achieve?

FM: Well, this was one of my most random shots ever taken. I had my best friend’s GoPro and I had never used it before. As we were experimenting and taking pictures in the sea, I randomly started snapping, without being able to see what I was photographing. The excitement afterward was the best part, something actually came out of it.

Pendant que les champs brûlent © Francesca Matta

YZ: What other outlets do you express yourself creatively?

FM: Since I was at school, my notebooks were covered by drawings. I’ve been painting since I can remember. This was my first way to express myself. Later on, I started to write. It was the discovery of a new world, understanding better my emotions which helped a lot in understanding my visual sensibility.

Today I am curious to dive more into ceramics. I always enjoyed working with my hands, so whether to feel textures, shape new things or simply embrace it with my bare hands, I’m in!

YZ: Who is a woman artist you look up to?

FM: Right now, I am completely obsessed with Camilla Engström’s paintings. There’s something about her metaphysical landscapes that makes you day dream along its colors and voluptuous curving forms. It’s not only about composition and shapes, it’s more about how she distorts reality in an erotic, yet empowering way.

All the colors we missed © Francesca Matta

YZ: What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?

FM: “Licorice Pizza” from Paul Thomas Anderson probably. Between reality and nostalgic-hallucination, this movie hit just the right spots.

I’ve been loving you too long © Francesca Matta

YZ: Are there any upcoming projects that we should expect from you?

FM: After living for almost three years in Milan, I am finally going back home for a while, Beirut. A city where everything is too beautiful to last.

It’s as if I am discovering my city for the first time. I am curious to see how my vision developed over the past years, what things I will be more sensitive to, where will my eyes lay on.

In parallel, I am currently in an Art Residency program in Bari with Imago+.It’s only the beginning, but I am super excited to take you with me and make you discover cities through my lens!