Middle Gate

Michèle Matyn (°1978) develops a versatile practice that includes photography, sculpture, installations and performance art. Her work is an act of reflection on how cultural constructs such as folklore, myth and ritual arise in various societies, examining in particular how nature is perceived and interacted with.

As an artist, her conviction that everything surrounding us is more or less alive, forms the cornerstone of her work. She is not on any particular quest for communion with a higher power. What she does, however, illustrate the human soul's sensitivity and receptivity to impressions, moods or experiences that are not capable of being interpreted rationally, but which do exemplify a direct connection to the essence of nature.

Matyn's visual work often starts with a journey into the unknown, to locations which are visually unfamiliar and which show little sign of human encroachment. This allows her to encounter the types of places and situations that may potentially serve as sources that inspire folk religion, often arising from the urge to explain the unexplainable. Matyn seeks human interaction with the landscape, and from her own perspective makes an attempt to participate in the rituals inherent to them. She makes these rituals her own by physically shaping raw materials and reworking them, re-employing them in rites of her own creation. Her works centre on the field of tension dividing human perception and the supernatural.