Matca is a recently opened gallery, or as the founders usually call it "alternative art space", in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was founded by a handful of local artists such as Matei Tosa, Alexandra Mocanu and Alexandru Muraru. Above it's their official logo.
Matei Tosa is a graphics graduate from the University of Arts and Design from Cluj-Napoca and one of the founders of Matca.
Matei, in the courtyard of the gallery
TEODORA(ME): How did you get the idea to open the gallery? How did it all happen?
MATEI: Well there was this Biennale on the Internet, called Worldwide Apartment and Studio Biennale and you had to apply with a project, either a solo show or a group show but it was very important that the event happens in a non-gallery or art space. They said to use apartments or studios, or something similar, but not a gallery or a special place for these kind of things. That's when I cleared my garage and did it all there. Against my expectations a lot of people came and it was quite successful. But there wasn't yet the idea that we'll found an art space, only after the second event.
T: But at the second event you already had the name?
M: Not really. After the second one we applied at the City hall for some funds, and so we needed a name for the project, the art space. It all happened very fast.
T: Why "Matca"? How did you guys choose the name?
M: It had to have a name and Matca is all we could agree on. We would say all kinds of words out loud to hear how they sound, I don't know how we eventually got this name. "Matca" also means "reunion" and we went for this meaning rather than the queen of bees. Because it represents what we want, a reunion of people our age, that we can discuss with and learn from.
T:What other choice of name did you think of?
M: I'm embarrassed to say. (laughs) We had "Sugar Cube Art Space". I completely hated it.
T: How is Matca different from other art spaces?
M: It's different because it doesn't yet have a defined identity, we don't have enough experience in the area and we wanted to go step by step. Matca builds it's identity step by step, we don't have an exact definition. It's a gallery for people our age.
Installation from the latest event
T:What is the process at Matca, how do you find artists? How does it all come together?
M: It's usually people who we already knew from before, friends, people we appreciate and want to work with. We sit and discuss among each other and then with the artists.
T: How does everyone from the group show agree to be placed under one big concept?
M:It all works very natural, Alexandra, she's our curator, she grabs input from me and Alex and makes a concept. We're happy with the outcome, we can't complain. That's why we chose people with who we have things in common so we don't really have unpleasant debates.
T: At this point do you make money from the gallery?
M: No, we only just started. We're too small for now, but for the future, of course it's what we want. But it has to happen step by step, we want to make people curious and interested in us first.
T: What's your motivation?
M: The feedback from people, from everywhere, good feedback. I'm doing it because I'm passionate about it, and by helping others I'm also helping myself, my own visibility as an artist.
T: Tell me something about your work.
M: I draw. That's what I've been doing since I was a kid.(laughs) I'm interested in the image, the problems of perception that an image can cause, depending on the context you put it in, or by removing the context. How do you manage to connect to things from different contexts that don't match, that's one of the problems of perception that I believe it's interesting. For example I photographer my curtain today, a detail from it, and put it as my Facebook cover, and it looks like an abstract composition. And it may seem like something else depending who's looking at it. So, yeah, usually the problem of perception.
T: Alright, that's it. Thank you very much.
M: No problem, it was a pleasure.
Images and information: https://www.facebook.com/matcaartspace/
For more: https://www.instagram.com/matcaartspace/