Mattea Riu

Mattea Riu is a Corsican artist born in Bastia in 1997. Her practice spans cinema, sound art, and writing. A committed artist, her work lies at the intersection of personal and collective memory, cultural transmission, and the sensory exploration of sound and image. Her creations primarily investigate collective memory and the traces left by those who once inhabited and shaped the places where she now works. This leads her to focus on the transmission of stories and identities connected to the Corsican territory.

Sound is a central medium for Mattea Riu, used to collect and archive memories with an organic approach, capturing the voices of her loved ones and the sounds around her with a desire for truth and sincerity. Deeply attuned to issues of cultural decolonization and the struggle to preserve and promote the Corsican language—which holds both emotional and political significance for her—she fights against its stigmatization and seeks to celebrate it through her artistic practice.

At Providenza, she developed the project Saetta è chjuchjulere (Lightning and Thunder), a multidisciplinary research work combining texts, podcasts, and installations. This project examines her roots in Corsican territory and people while exploring the complex ties between inhabitants and their living spaces, as well as their relationship to language. Her research focuses on a collective history often relegated to the margins: feminist movements and their connection to nationalist struggles, as well as the efforts of Corsican women in contemporary times, particularly their relationship with the Corsican language and the practice of singing.

Faced with the fragility of this memory, predominantly passed down orally, she strives to make it more visible and accessible. To this end, she archives her discussions with Corsican women figures (such as Ghjermana de Zerbi, Danièle Maoudj, Anna-Laura Cristofari, and members of the ‘Femmes pour la Vie’ and ‘Donne Corse’ movements) in the form of podcasts. These sound creations, blending documentary and performance, capture the voices of Corsican women, alternating between concrete narratives and more musical or poetic sequences.

During the festival, Mattea Riu presented a sound performance excerpted from this work, which also reflected on her own relationship with issues of belonging, connection to territory, collective identity, and language.