Matti Braun 마티 브라운 : Ku Sol Sep 21 - Oct 23, 2022
Gallery Hyundai presents Ku Sol, the first solo exhibition in Asia by German artist Matti Braun, from September 21 to October 23.
The exhibition features a wide selection of around 50 key works by Braun, including his beautiful abstract painting series produced by applying different colors of dye to silk; his glassworksproduced in collaboration with Bavarian glass artisans using traditional techniques; and his set of six photographs of an experimental play inspired by Indian film director Satyajit Ray’s unrealized script titled The Alien.
Working in a broad range of areas including not only art but also culture, history and science, Matti Braun weaves together vast webs of meaning as he enthusiastically discovers and explores lesser-known narratives. His work is based on research into cultural migration, exchange and transformation across Eastern and Western times and spaces, as long with particular figures and themes ranging from physicist Vikram Sarabhai and Mahatma Gandhi to Le Corbusier, India’s space exploration program, the unfilmed script for The Alien by Satyajit Ray, and Steven Spielberg’s E.T. In the process, it provides an opportunity to viewers to break with standardized frameworks of interpretation and form readings based on their own individual narratives. The exhibition title Ku Sol is a poetic evocation of Braun’s artistic vision, which involves forging cultural and linguistic connections. Combining the Finnish word “kuu” meaning “moon” with the Latin word “sol” meaning “sun,” it is a title with both natural and cosmic associations, echoing the artist’s approach of incorporating intersubjectivity and ambiguity without representing a particular object.
For the colorful glassworksplaced on round tables, Braun collaborated with glass artisans using the traditional craft techniques of Bavaria. This glass sculpture work is produced with a traditional craft technique that involves inserting tubes into molten glass and blowing, yet the resulting mysterious combinations of colors seem untouched by human hands. The rounded shapes in the work recall distant planets, the eggs of an alien lifeform, or the strange eyes of aliens (outsiders) as they are endlessly presented to us in the media. Braun’s glass sculptures can be interpreted not simply as reflections of his personal interest in science fiction or alien beings, but as different “eyes” representing his perspective on an unknown world. Also, by alternating between the genres of crafts and art, the artist shows his own orientation toward experimenting with media in a broader sphere, blurring genre boundaries as he challenges the ways in which “glass” is defined as a medium in artistic discourse.
Braun’s Untitled series of abstract silk paintings also shares resonance with the properties of “alien” beings in terms of the absence of representational elements and transcendence of form. Suffused with magical glimmering that seems to reflect light beams in space or alternating light and darkness, this work gives the impression of opening up a new dimension in space and time. Matti Braun began producing silk-based work in 2008 and created batik designs early on with geometric patterns and line/ray motifs. In 2014, he began experimenting with abstract silk paintings blending different colors together. This would eventually transform into his current style of abstract work that creates highly delicate spectrums of color through the application of paint over sleek and meticulous woven panels of silk. These entrancing silk painting works boast qualities that are religious, meditative and even mesmerizing. They are based on the artist’s painstaking in-depth research into the history of silk and traditional textile techniques. By applying color in such intense and restrained ways to a fabric that has been used since ancient times for religious and ritualistic purposes, Braun separates silk from its context as a traditional material—a very important theme in his body of work. The cultural heritage that he explores and the stories and themes of interrelatedness that he shares are meant less as explanatory elements for his work and more as a way of guiding viewers into a new visual experience and journey in search of meaning.
갤러리현대는 독일 작가 마티 브라운(Matti Braun)의 아시아 첫 개인전 《Ku Sol》를 9월 21일부터 10월 23일까지 개최한다. 전시는 다채로운 염료를 실크에 고루 입혀 완성한 아름다운 추상화 연작과 전통 유리공예 기법으로 장인과 협업하여 탄생한 유리 조각, 인도 영화 감독 사트야지트 레이(Satyajit Ray)의 미실현된 각본 〈The Alien〉에 영감을 받고 제작한 실험적 공연의 사진 작품 등 대표작 50여 점을 대거 선보인다.
독일 작가 마티 브라운은 미술뿐 아니라 문화, 역사, 과학 등 다양한 분야에서 상대적으로 덜 알려진 개별 서사를 열정적으로 발굴하고 탐구하면서 거대한 의미망을 직조해간다. 비크람 사라바이(Vikran Sarabhai), 마하마타 간디(Mahatma Gandhi), 르 코르뷔지에(Le Corbusier), 인도의 우주개발 프로그램, 사트야지트 레이(Satyajit Ray)의 미실현 각본 <외계인(The Alien)>부터 스티븐 스필버그의 <E.T>까지, 특정 인물과 동서양의 시공간을 가로지르는 문화의 이동과 교류 및 변화 작용을 연구하며 제작된 그의 작품은 관람객이 정형화된 해석의 틀에서 벗어나 본인만의 서사를 창조하며 작품을 해석하는 기회를 제공한다. 전시 제목 ‘Ku Sol’은 문화적 언어적 연결고리를 만들어내는 작가의 작품세계를 시적으로 반영하고 있다. 달을 뜻하는 핀란드어 ‘kuu’와 태양을 뜻하는 라틴어 ‘sol’을 조합하여 만든 자연적이며 우주적인 제목은 어떠한 대상을 재현하지 않으며 상호주관성과 다의성을 내포한 그의 작품과 일맥상통한다.
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