Matthew Mazzotta (SMVisS ’09), Guggenheim Fellowship winner and ACT Lecturer, has recently been the subject of a biographical radio documentary produced by CBC Radio One.
The documentary, titled “A House Needs a Human Breath,” covers topics ranging from Mazzotta’s life, work, and ties to Newfoundland through his relationship with his grandfather. He speaks extensively about his start in the arts from his experiences at MIT and the impact of Krzysztof Wodiczko on his work, among others.
Mazzotta describes himself as an artist who builds buildings, and someone who is working “at the intersection of art, architecture, and urban planning.”
Mazzotta’s art journey is a long and curved one that started with childhood summers in Bauline East, a small community south of St. John’s on Newfoundland’s Southern Shore. He followed his grandfather, Matt Colbert, around as he tinkered with motors, invented tools, picked berries, fished and repaired his house. He says he learned a lot about how to live a good and interesting life from Colbert, his mother’s father.
Due to the effects of COVID-19, he is living and working in upstate New York with an upcoming TED talk, spoke at the United Nations in September as part of The Future is Unwritten program, and has projects planned in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Boise, and Tampa.
Listen to “A House Needs a Human Breath,” 2020, CBC Radio One.
Read the full article produced by CBC Newfoundland and Labrador here.
