Giuseppe Mastromatteo's 'Euforia' Uses Photography to Process Grief

Giuseppe Mastromatteo, an artist, photographer, and creative director born in Busto Arsizio in 1970, has released a new book titled 'Euforia' with Mimesis publishing house as part of the 'Sguardi e visioni' series. The volume uses photography to explore memory, trauma, identity, and the meaning of art, arguing that art gives form to pain rather than eliminating it. Mastromatteo organizes images into thematic 'rooms,' centering on the mask as a mediating tool—not for concealment but for making identity audible, referencing the Latin 'persona.' The concept of 'euforia' is presented as a fragile, temporary opening in darkness that allows one to observe suffering without being overwhelmed. Personal biography—including his sister's illness, family fractures, and childhood wounds—serves as material for universal questions rather than autobiography. Mastromatteo's style is described as an 'aesthetic of absence,' silence, and separation, evoking Rothko, Morandi, and John Cage. The book connects art to psychology, suggesting images are active forces shaping the present. It references thinkers like Elmar Salmann, Philp Prodger, György Lukács, Roland Barthes, and Carlo Emilio Gadda, and places itself in a tradition from Van Gogh to Louise Bourgeois. The article was written by Domenico Ioppolo for Artribune.