ABOUT CATERINA
Video Credit: Joy Wanders
about caterina
Caterina Roppo (b. 1986) is an Italian multidisciplinary artist based between Palma de Mallorca and Milan. Trained in Florence, her practice moves across sculpture, textile-based material research, installation, and performance.
Through an experimental approach that brings together ancestral techniques and material innovation, Roppo explores the relationship between trauma, memory, and matter. Her long-term research project Trayma, inspired by the Greek term for “wound” or “rupture,” investigates trauma not as an isolated event, but as a structural fracture of existence — an opening through which identity, time, and transformation can be reconfigured.
Fabric, conceived as a form of epidermis, becomes a primary site of inquiry. Working with plant-based fibers and processes such as Jacquard weaving, steaming, mending, sculpting, and painting, Roppo develops textile forms that evoke stone, erosion, and organic surfaces. These works balance three-dimensionality and fragility, merging material experimentation with ancestral memory and traces of abandoned or transitional spaces.
Beyond weaving, her practice engages textiles as sculptural and performative bodies. Through cutting, repairing, and reshaping, materials acquire a strong physical presence, capable of registering tension, vulnerability, and endurance.
Alongside her artistic work, Roppo leads two long-term cultural projects. Il Vuoto di Trayma is a traveling educational and public program focused on violence prevention among adolescents. SEVA is a cultural diplomacy initiative supported by the European Union and the Cultural Relations Platform, developed in collaboration with the University of the Arts London, Goethe-Institut, British Council, and the Italian Embassy in Colombo. SEVA works with artisan communities affected by conflict and environmental disruption, using art as a space for listening, resilience, and regeneration.
Rejecting hierarchical and extractive models, Roppo’s practice is grounded in non-paternalistic exchange and shared responsibility. Her work often takes on symbolic and ritual forms, functioning as secular acts that invite viewers to understand pain as a passage rather than a condition, and vulnerability as a generative force. Through material and relational processes, she creates spaces in which transformation can emerge collectively.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
FEEDback, Urban Romanticism, solo exhibition, Palazzo Giustignani, Genoa, Italy, 2023,
curated by Eric Goldemberg
curated by Eric Goldemberg
Everybody Has Pain Somewhere, solo exhibition, Piazza del Carmine, Milan, Italy, 2025,
critical text by Domitilla Dardi
Galateo Ancestrale, solo exhibition, CULT EDIT, Complesso Museale Santa Maria delle
Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco, Naples, Italy, 2024, curated by Domitilla Dardi
Being Worldless, solo exhibition, Casino dell’Aurora Pallavicini, Rome, Italy, 2024,
curated by Domenico de Chirico
Being Worldless, solo exhibition, Palazzo Cagnola, Milan, Italy, 2024, curated by
Domenico de Chirico
Shard of Stones, solo exhibition, Martch Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey, 2024, curated by
Michele Spinelli
Eidos, duo exhibition with Léa Dumayet, Galleria Ipercubo, Milan, Italy, 2023, curated
by Gabriela Galati
Selected Group Exhibitions
Weave the Wave, group exhibition, FX Gallery and Central Slovak Gallery, Slovakia,
2025, curated by DeepArtSpace
Transformations, group exhibition, Museu de la Pell, Igualada, Spain, 2025
Turkish Textile Biennial, group exhibition, Istanbul, Turkey, 2025, curated by Nihat Özdal
Arte Laguna Prize, Finalists’ Exhibition, group exhibition, Arsenale Nord, Venice, Italy,
2024, curated by Giulia Colletti and Chiara Canali
Il Vuoto di Trayma, group exhibition, Arsenale Nord, Venice, Italy, 2024
XTANT, group exhibition, Mallorca, Spain, 2024
CRAMUM, Reti, group exhibition, Milan, Italy, 2024, curated by Sabino Maria Frassà
Contemporary Istanbul, group exhibition, Istanbul, Turkey, 2023, curated by Tarek Hourani
Baitball 03, group exhibition, Palazzo San Giuseppe, Polignano a Mare, Italy, 2023,
curated by Michele Spinelli
Documentary
TRAYMA (docufilm) –Watch the video
SEVA (docufilm) – Watch the Movie
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
Luxembourg Art Prize, Certificate of Artistic Merit, 2024
Arte Laguna Prize, Finalist, Venice, IT, 2024
Arte Laguna Prize, Sustainability Special Mention, Contarina, Venice, IT, 2024
Arte Laguna Prize, Business for Art, Incalmi and Bios Line, 2024
CRAMUM Prize, Finalist, Milan, IT, 2024
CONFERENCES & TALKS
Crafting Value, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, London, United
Kingdom, 2025
FEEDback – Urban Romanticism, public talk, Genoa, Italy, 2025
FEEDback – It’s About Time!, public lecture, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya,
Barcelona, Spain, 2024
FEEDback – It’s About Time!, public lecture, Curtin School of Design and Built
Environment, Perth, Australia, 2024
PUBLICATIONS & CATALOGUES
Il Vuoto di Trayma, artist book, 2024
Eroi & Sopravvissuti, CRAMUM, 2024
CRITICAL TEXTS
Domitilla Dardi, Everybody Has Pain Somewhere, 2025
Domenico de Chirico, Being Worldless, 2024
Gabriella Galati, Eidos. La forma del pensiero, 2023
Michele Spinelli, Trayma, 2022
SELECTED SPECIAL PROJECTS
Marcel Wanders and Caterina Roppo, Fischbacher 1819, Paris and Milan, 2025
Moooi Selected Project, Introvert Chair, Moco Museum, London, 2025
Video credits: Joy Wanders