Valerio Rocco Orlando (Italy, 1978) is an artist, researcher, and professor.
He holds a PhD in Engineering-based Architecture and Urban Planning from Sapienza Università di Roma. He is the founder and director of the Scuola dei Sassi, a free, intercultural, and transpedagogical program launched in a state-owned property that the Municipality of Matera granted him for thirty years. He served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Basel. Since 2019, he has taught Multimedia Dramaturgy at the Brera Academy in Milan.
Through practices ranging from workshops to video installations, he conceives art as a process of mutual knowledge and understanding. The heart of his research is the exploration of osmosis between institutions, territory, and the social sphere.
Over the years he has activated fruitful collaborations with philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, composer Michael Nyman, artists Gilbert & George, Ugo Rondinone, and Liam Gillick, actors Saleh Bakri and Alba Rohrwacher, sociologist Boaventura De Sousa Santos, and psychoanalyst Luigi Zoja.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the ISCP New York prize (2009), an International Artist Fellowship from the MMCA National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (2014), and the Kunstpreis VAF Stiftung (2016). He has also obtained the support of the Italian Council (2020) and the Contemporary Art Plan (2023) from the Ministry of Culture.
His work is in the permanent collections of renowned institutions such as A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana; Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato; CSAC, Parma; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; GAMeC, Bergamo; La Galleria Nazionale, Rome; MACRO, Rome; MAGA, Gallarate; Mart, Rovereto; Museo del Novecento, Milan; MUSMA, Matera; VAF Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main.