Mattia Biffis er tilsatt som postdoktor ved Det norske instituttet i Roma

Mann i bymiljø.

Mattia Biffis

Foto: Privat.

Biffis avla doktorgrad i kunsthistorie ved universitetet i Venezia i 2013. Han skal forske på venetiansk kunst fra 1500-tallet og 1600-tallskunst fra Bologna, og ha fagansvar for emnet Roma2020. Biffis har et svært bredt interessefelt. Han er blant annet opptatt av:

  • kultur- og idéhistorie 
  • renessansestudier 
  • kunstgeografi 
  • objektmobilitet og opphavsstudier 
  • exilstudier 
  • material-og identitetskultur 
  • samlerhistorie
  • kunstkritikkhistorie

Han skal ha fagansvar for Roma2020. Han ønsker å bidra til undervisning i kunsthistorie i Oslo, og forteller at han er veldig motivert for nært samarbeid med fagmiljøer i Norge.

Internasjonal bakgrunn

Biffis har studert ved både universitetet i Venezia hvor han avla mastergrad i kunsthistorie, litteratur og filosofi i 2006, og ved The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London hvor han avla mastergrad i kultur- og idéhistorie i 2007. Doktorgradsavhandlingen hans bar tittelen Giuseppe Salviati in Venice, 1540–1565. A research into his artistic production and literary legacy.

Som gjesteforsker har Biffis besøkt blant annet The Warburg Institute i 2018, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin sommeren 2014, og The Dutch Institute for Art History, i Firenze i 2013.

En fabelaktig mulighet

– Dette er en fabelaktig mulighet til å få arbeide i et internasjonalt samarbeidsmiljø, med kollegaer fra mange forskjellige bakgrunner og fagfelt, sier Biffis om hvorfor han ønsket seg til Det norske instituttet i Roma.

Etter å ha tilbrakt mye tid ved internasjonale forskningsinstitusjoner i Europa og USA er han veldig tydelig på viktigheten av å møte og samhandle med kolleger som kommer fra en annen bakgrunn enn ens egen.

Selv beskriver Biffis sin forskning slik:

“My research focuses primarily on issues of geography and materiality, and is mostly concerned with ideas of physical displacement and mobility of works of art and forms of knowledge in early modern Europe. I have worked on topics such as the representation of exile; the quest for identity by early modern mobile individuals; the mobility of artworks and their provenance. Addressing the career of migrant artists in Renaissance Venice, my Ph.D. dissertation investigated the cultural and professional integration of transplanted painters in early modern Italy, considering their roles as agents of artistic change. As a member of the research project “Early Modern Sources in Translation” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, I also maintain a strong research interest in the field of Baroque art and culture, and in the history of art criticism. Entitled “Painting, Distance, and Circulation: a Geography of Things in Early Modern Europe,” my current research project investigates the physical and material circumstances by which art is transmitted, displaced, and re-contextualized in the early modern world, creating new markets, audiences, and meaning.

As an art historian, specializing in the Renaissance period, most of my ideas come from conversations with social historians, or scholar of Chinese art, or even restorers. No matter whether you work in the humanities or in the STEM, cross-fertilization is vital in academia, and I believe that the Norwegian Institute can very well help to accomplish this end. For this reason, I look forward to coming very soon to Oslo, in order to create networks and possible collaborations with other scholars at the faculty of Humanities. I plan to travel regularly to Oslo, and to create robust networks with the scholars there, and to teach some classes for students in art history. We are now putting together a program for conferences and workshops for the coming years, and I very much look forward to approaching colleagues in Oslo to see how we can collaborate together. One of the themes I am working on – which stems from my main interest in the physical and mechanical mobility of paintings in the early modern period – is the idea of borders and frontiers as epistemic devices opening up new and productive perspectives on the transformations we are currently facing in our world. I hope to be able to talk to the department in Oslo very soon about this project, and the others on the making!”

Av Ellen Evju Jahr
Publisert 14. mars 2018 09:48 - Sist endret 3. okt. 2020 20:25