Simone Mattar works with design, performance and gastronomy, both independently and in combination, in a variety of contexts and venues, as well as in different creative platforms. She explores gastronomic aesthetics for its expressive potential.
She worked at Graphitti in Florence, Italy, with Andréa Rauch and Stefano Rovai, where she had an active part in design projects linked to social and cultural issues, and exhibited works in Milan, representing the graphic arts of Brazil. Back home, she served several times as director of ADG –the Graphic Designers’ Association– where she started a Technology and Design Commission and coordinated the ADG Design Biennial exhibition at SESC Pompéia.
Simone created the neologism “gastroperformance” in order to establish the contours of a new form of self-expression which enacts a lively dialogue between design, gastronomy and creative expression where food is experienced as a total art form. A gastroperformance seeks to imbue gastronomy with critical thinking by associating the act of eating to diverse mediums such as dance, music, sculpture and painting, and uses the materiality of food –its flavours, textures, shapes and colours– to distil musings on various topics. She has done design projects for more than 100 restaurants and food sector companies, and today she is committed to experimental projects presented or staged in museums, art galleries and other cultural venues in Brazil and around the world.
From her experience in Italy, she gained the confidence to start her own studio, Mattar Design, in 1990. It was not long before her business took off and, with clients from several different trades, she earned wide recognition and critical acclaim from professionals and corporations. Even amid success, though, her innovative mindset pushed harder and the studio began to adopt a more experimental character by carrying out projects in the service of concepts. Thus, in 2006 Mattar Design changed to LabMattar, a name that points to a new way of regarding projects as pertaining to the sphere of human actions and development.