Ohne Titel

2009 - Painting (Painting)

53 x 62 x 5 cm

Matti Braun

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During a residency in 2009 at L’appartement 22 in Rabat, the artist traveled in Morocco and Senegal on the traces of the German sculptor Arno Breker. On this occasion he learned about batik, a fabric printing technique which originates not only from Indonesia but also from Senegal. It is also widespread in Africa. The artist was inspired by the printed motifs to make a series of batiks, Untitled, on which the white on black motifs recall European geometric abstraction. By re-appropriating these handcrafted traditional techniques (batik, Japanese ink and wash, blown glass, woodcuts, painting on ceramic…) Matti Braun displaces their usage and their context at the same time and reveals the porousness between different cultures that interpenetrate. Thus the artist aims to shed troubled light on different histories by operating these correspondences between forms and past knowledge, present and future.

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Matti Braun’s work entails research and experienced wanderings during sojourns and journeys. He explores heterogeneous data. Their junction generates rapports with other geographic and cultural eras, sometimes in anachronistic ways. Matti Braun is interested in different cultures and particularly in the multiple physical and conceptual migrations they have experienced. The creative process results in in-depth research regarding the interpretations about these different cultures. The images and the forms are utilized in a narrative while maintaining an enigmatic dimension. Matti Braun was born in Berlin in 1968. He lives and works in Cologne, Germany.

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Colors:

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• interpenetration.n.02
• cross-cultural.a.01
• appropriation.n.03
• displacement.n.06
• migration.n.01
• africa.n.01
• monochrome