Michèle Matyn could be described as an adventurer and a master-storyteller. The artist, living in Antwerp, but exploring the entire world, travels as a way to encounter stories, rituals and intriguing places. While in search of those, she is guided by two main instruments: her polaroid camera and her intuition.
Matyn is originally a photography artist, who has since the start of her career relentlessly tried to break the boundaries of the medium, and to find new and exciting ways to present images (or in her case it is perhaps better to say: narratives). With her oeuvre spanning such a wide spectrum of materials, from photography to performance and from sculpture to film, she is rarely considered a mere photographer anymore. However, photography remains at the heart of her practice. The original polaroids, taken during traveling, are never shown – they are used as blown-up images, either on carefully chosen paper or on textiles and installations; even in costumes, which then feature in performances based on her experiences with certain myths, folklore and cultures.
Free of any label, she creates universes, rather than singular artworks. Aware of her performing body – we are all daily performing bodies, in a sense – she uses it directly to convey stories, usually ones that need to be experienced, rather than read or heard. Her oeuvre is essentially built around human religious or mythical beliefs founded on an intuitive bond with nature and thus magical connections, created in the collective mind. A similar kind of magic can be found in the way Matyn creates her narrative performances: things fall into place – almost like in a dream. She intuitively knows the names of her characters, the way they look, because she intuitively understands which places and moments are inspiring and charged with certain energies.
Following a hint or a story, she will choose a destination – rarely the same one twice – and take up as much as possible of what the surroundings have to offer. There too, she ‘follows her nose’. The structure of a certain rock formation will fascinate her, a small and lonely bended tree will trigger her sympathy. She will photograph what impresses her most, seldomly a majestic panoramic view, but more often details which to her, represent the location and the atmosphere. The image then speaks of the relation the artist is experiencing with the surroundings at that moment; however, the photographic scale is too small to really convey it. That’s why, in exhibitions, all her photographs are enlarged: the relation between the body of the viewer and the image is intensified and more imaginative. The mountain is a character in its own right; a silent, monumental presence. Because of the visible details of, for example, a rock formation, the viewer might recognize patterns resembling a human face or other figurative elements, and thus find a deeper connection to the image.
In her 2016 large-scale solo exhibition at M HKA, Antwerp, Matyn executed the performance ‘Breadhead’, walking around with a giant bread, breathing through a few holes. This character was the result of a visit to the Russian town of Vladikavkaz, a place where folklore and mythical beliefs are very prominent. The artist’s experiments with bread – a very basic symbol of human interaction and intimate ties – were met with indignation. The original giant bread she ordered from a local bakery was taken from her temporary studio. She however recreated the idea in Antwerp, where her performance spoke of instinctive yet deep human connection. She melted wax, pressing small chunks of it in the crook of her arm, to then invite a member of the audience to hook in with their own elbows, and dance.
It is striking that, for a large part, Matyn’s oeuvre is built on ephemerality. Not only are her travels finite, and often a one-time experience; her performances obviously create a momentum. In addition to that, she often works with perishable materials such as bread and sugar. The results of her performances often morph into a sculpture or installation, or at the very least remain in the exhibition as a residue. After the performance of ‘Breadhead’ in M HKA, Antwerp, the wax imprints of the interactive dance scene laid on the floor for the rest of the exhibition period. And the clay ‘Bilpannen’ – a series of roof tiles – which were created during an earlier performance with six other women, became a sculpture. Nonetheless, the costumes of, for example, ‘Breadhead’, or her ‘Bilkoekmachine’ are just waiting to be re-activated. In that sense, these objects have a potential life outside of the museum. They don’t merely exist as an autonomous work of art, their being transcends the gaze of the viewer, to which they are momentarily subjected.
Besides being an artist, Matyn also has a role as a mother. Since a few years, her two sons are occasional partners in her practice. They accompanied her to an artist residency in ArteVentura, in Andalusia, Spain. Working on the resulting exhibition project at Club Solo in Breda, the three functioned as a collective. Ewoud and Bernhard are mentioned as artists in the text accompanying the exhibition. They freely created expressive drawings on the hollow bricks in ‘Turfbroot’ and they were equal collaborators in the installation of what could be seen as a crossover between an exhibition and a playground – in other words: they installed their own universe, in which they also performed for an audience during the opening event (in their self-chosen rainbow leggings). All this of their own volition – Matyn finds it important to stress this, as obviously her forming a collective with her two children raises some interesting questions concerning parental influence and authorship; a debate she embraces as she strives for more transparency around the challenges and taboos faced by artist-parents.
Tales of fishermen in the Antwerp harbour, the skin-like, vein-like marble look of rocks along the Swedish coast and an uncomfortable fascination for deep-sea creatures, all come together in the Jenny Haniver project. The title comes from a mispronunciation of “jeune d’Anvers” and was originally a name given to the dried carcass of rays, hanging in the port of Antwerp. In some stories, the demon-like creatures are believed to have magical powers.
In Göteborg, where the work was originally conceived for the Biennale in 2017, rays are a protected species and the performance was conceived with bread. However, in Antwerp the piece was executed with actual rays. Following her usual method, Matyn created several characters, based on photographic material of her travels: Drooler, who wets chamois leather, Very Very Happy, who colours those same textiles, and who is a reference to the cute “smiley face” of a living ray, and Difficult Road I and II, acting as a sort of guardians. Together, they create a marbled version of a dried ray, a “Jenny Haniver”, with the intention of returning it to the water, restoring a natural balance in the universe. The characters’ costumes and the dried rays are objects that can be shown in an exhibition – static yet with the potential of re-activation.
This negotiation with nature is not rare to Matyn: it is a motif throughout some of her performances, but it is also a ritual she performs while traveling. Whenever taking photographs or natural material from a certain location, she trades it with something personal or essential, such as food. The often-traded cherry tomatoes have found their way back to her oeuvre in a bronze form. On one occasion, she was confronted with a small tree trunk who wanted to see the world. She took him out of his natural context, leaving behind tomatoes and in exchange bringing him with her on other travels.
Soup was served during her performance at M HKA, as it will be during ‘Herfst, set to take place in November 2021 in ‘s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. The performative ceremony is a tribute to the autumn season, with characters carrying long breads in a procession, and meeting a soup-carrier halfway to share the meal. At a crossroads people come together in a ritual feast: to eat, to share; stories emerge, a connection is made. This is at the heart of Matyn’s oeuvre and mind. Informed by myths, folklore, and stories passed on by rituals and oral or visual communication, she creates new ritual performances, radiating a new kind of magical interaction, and opening up questions of relations between humans and nature – and of humans between themselves.
Tamara Beheydt