Mathieu Schmitt

Mathieu Schmitt's work is not precisely where you think you will find it at first glance. Behind its forms, which often draw from a recent history of international abstraction, his work plays with opposites. So when he re-interprets Le Corbusier's armchair, he imagines it made using crates for transporting pictures. Once these pictures have been removed from their packaging and affixed to the wall, they will, with panache, complement the standard array of the perfect contemporary interior. The artist is fond of offsetting the viewpoint and he does his utmost, furthermore, to be surpassed by his works. To this end, he introduces arrangements enabling his sculptures to acquire a certain autonomy. Henceforth, in his output, green potted plants themselves choose their level of luminosity, they compose poems and pictures, a monumental Ouija board communicates with the hereafter... By wittily handling technique, the artist uses it like a vehicle helping us to interpret the world. In his oeuvre, Mathieu Schmitt puts his mastery at the service of incidents and accidents, and thus sets out in quest of things living. Translated by Simon Pleasance