He frees himself from codes to recompose them as he pleases, creating metaphorical works that reflect his multi-faceted work.
Walking on gold leaves in the Gobelins Chapel for the Mobilier National, treading the sky when entering his studio, bathing in the water of a mirror at the Palais des Beaux-arts in Lille… Mathias Kiss takes the opposite side of the references. His opposition to the codes of the decorative arts does not make a clean sweep of the past, but leans on him to better divert it and create a new aesthetic marrying fantasy and poetry. A painter and glazier with the Compagnons du Devoir for fifteen years, experienced in restoration work, a specialist in faux-ciels and woodwork cornices, he has gone off the rails to find his own way by going to the other side of the mirror, thus becoming an artist whose works play with our perceptions and open up the field of possibilities. His work with frames and mirrors takes on a symbolic value, requalifying as works of art what was previously only accessory. With Out of Frame, the golden moldings escape the diktat of paintings to become sculptures, just like the mirrors of Sans90Degrés, freed from the constraint of flatness to reflect a reality more complex than it seems. Taken to the field of contemporary art, his favorite materials are the accomplices of detour on a larger scale, like these cornices running on the walls of an apartment, or this ceiling of ice reflecting an immaculate curtain falling in cascade to spread on a floor paved with mirrors, in an installation well named Liquid mirror.
As an alchemist of matter, Mathias Kiss has given free rein to his imagination, thanks to several carte blanche offers by institutions. At the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, he created a water mirror reflecting the sky. His Besoin d’air? is also a contemporary tribute to our classical heritage. A talented illusionist, he has not finished surprising us.
Sophie Reyssat
Photos: ©David Zagdoun
