ABOUT CATERINA
Video Credit: Joy Wanders
Caterina Roppo (born September 25, 1986) is a is a multidisciplinary artist, trained in Florence.
She lives and works between Palma de Mallorca and Milan.
With her experimental approach, Roppo blends ancestral techniques and material avant-garde to explore the connection between trauma, memory, and matter. Her seminal project Trayma, inspired by the Greek word for "wound" and “perforation,” investigates trauma as a fracture of existence, an opening to immaterial worlds where the Self can be explored.
The fabric, conceived as epidermis, becomes a means for aesthetic reconciliation, addressing three-dimensionality and balancing modernity with ancestral memory. Her practice merges ruins and abandoned places with natural and imperfect materials.
Using plant fibers such as viscose and rayon, through Jacquard weaving, Roppo creates fabrics that evoke organic surfaces, free filaments, and three-dimensional volumes, generating deep tensions between the points and using steam technology to mimic stone in her textile interpretations.
Roppo doesn’t limit herself to weaving: shemends, sculpts, paints her textiles, giving them a powerful sense of materiality and presence.
She is currently leading two wide-ranging cultural projects: Il Vuoto di Trayma, a traveling educational program aimed at violence prevention, and SEVA, a cultural diplomacy initiative supported by the European Union and the Cultural Relations Platform (in collaboration with the University of the Arts London, Goethe-Institut, British Council, and the Italian Embassy in Colombo). SEVA explores resilience within small artisan communities affected by conflict and natural disasters, weaving together art, listening, and regeneration.
Roppo rejects hierarchical structures, social, intellectual, or economic, and embraces an equal, non-paternalistic dialogue with others. Her work takes on symbolic and ritual forms, akin to secular prayers, inviting people to perceive pain as a transition and identity as an instrument. She envisions new forms of self-creation where vulnerability is not silenced but embraced as the foundation of possible transformation. Her research is designed to adapt to small communities and societies emerging from conflict, creating spaces of exchange where fragility becomes a generative force.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
FEEDback – Urban Romanticism, Palazzo Giustignani, Genova, Italy(Cur. Eric Goldemberg)
SEVA (docufilm), Terrae International Film Festival, Patù, Italy (Cur. Silvia De Nuccio)
FEEDback – It’s About Time!, With-Gallery, Perth, Australia (Cur. Eric Goldemberg)
Everybody has pain somewhere, Piazza del Carmine 9, Milan, Italy (Cri. Text Domitilla Dardi)
Galateo Ancestrale, CULT EDIT, Complesso Museale Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco, Naples, Italy (Cur. Domitilla Dardi)
Being Worldless, Casino dell’Aurora Pallavicini, Rome, Italy (Cur. Domenico de Chirico)
Being Worldless, Palazzo Cagnola, Milan, Italy (Cur. Domenico de Chirico)
Shard of Stones, Martch Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey (Cur.Michele Spinelli)
Vettor Art Project, Bari, Italy (Cur.Michele Spinelli)
2022 – Eidos, La forma del Pensiero, Milano, Italy (Cur. Gabriella Galati)
Selected Group Exhibitions
Upcoming – Weave the Wave. FX Gallery & Central Slovak Gallery (Cur. by DeepArtSpace) 2025 – Transformations, Museu de la Pell, Igualada, Barcellona, Spain 2025 – Turkish Textile Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (cur. Nihat Özdal)
2024 – Arte Laguna Prize – Finalist Exhibition, Venice (cur. Colletti, Canali)
2024 – Il Vuoto di Trayma, Venice (cur. Colletti, Canali)
2024 – Xtant, Mallorca, Spain (cur. Kavita Parmar)
2024 – Kaplan Project, Mallorca, Spain (cur. Mercedes Estarellas)
2024 – Cramum, Reti, Milano, Italy (Cur. Sabino Maria Frassà)
2023 – Paratissima Eye Contact,, Beautifool Minds, Torino, Italy (Carolina Ruggeri)
2023 – Contemporary Istanbul, Hakkasan, Istanbul, Turkey (Cur.Tarek Hurani) 2023 – Baitball #03, Palazzo San Giuseppe, Polignano a Mare, Italy (Cur. Michele Spinelli)
2024 – Arte Laguna Prize – Finalist Exhibition, Venice (cur. Colletti, Canali)
2024 – Il Vuoto di Trayma, Venice (cur. Colletti, Canali)
2024 – Xtant, Mallorca, Spain (cur. Kavita Parmar)
2024 – Kaplan Project, Mallorca, Spain (cur. Mercedes Estarellas)
2024 – Cramum, Reti, Milano, Italy (Cur. Sabino Maria Frassà)
2023 – Paratissima Eye Contact,, Beautifool Minds, Torino, Italy (Carolina Ruggeri)
2023 – Contemporary Istanbul, Hakkasan, Istanbul, Turkey (Cur.Tarek Hurani) 2023 – Baitball #03, Palazzo San Giuseppe, Polignano a Mare, Italy (Cur. Michele Spinelli)
Awards & Recognition (2024)
Certificate of Artistic Merit, Luxembourg Art Prize
Arte Laguna Prize – Finalist, Venezia
Arte Laguna Prize Business for Art – Incalmi, Bios Line
Arte Laguna Prize Sustainability – Special Mention, Contarina (Venezia)
Cramum – Finalist, Milano
FEEDback Prize
Prisma Art Prize
Documentary
TRAYMA (docufilm) –Watch the video
SEVA (docufilm) – Watch the Movie
Cultural Diplomacy Projects
EU–Sri Lanka Match-Making 2025
Talks and Conferences
FEEDback – Urban Romanticism
FEEDback – It’s About Time!, UIC Barcelona
FEEDback – It’s About Time!, Curtin School of Design and Built Environment, Perth
Illustration Projects
2024, 2021 – Cover Illustrations, Panorama Collezione
Special Projects
Moooi Selected Project, Milano (2025)
Marcel Wanders & Caterina Roppo x Fischbacher 1819, Milano e Parigi (2025)
Critical Texts
Everybody has pain somewhere, Domitilla Dardi (2025)
Being Worldless, Domenico de Chirico (2024)
Eidos, La forma del pensiero, Gabriela Galati (2023)
Trayma, Michele Spinelli (2022)
Catalogues and Publications
Il Vuoto di Trayma (2024)
Eroi & Sopravvissuti (CRAMUM)
Video credits: Joy Wanders