Matthieu Martin’s work focuses on the organization and hierarchization of space (institutional, public, urban) and the manner in which it interferes with the logics of standardization and control. Against imposed borders and restrained mobility, the artist proposes forms of transportation, which are at the same time physical, mental and symbolical. Refresh the Revolution (2012) is about repainting in its original color – the emblematic whiteness of architectural modernism – a deserted building of Moise Reicher; the current Constructivist Garden project plans to move the vegetation that covers the roof of a factory built by Erich Mendelson to make an urban park out of it. In Principe de Précaution , pen and felt-tip marker drawings drafted after photos of institutional places taken by the artist (museums and galleries in Russia, France, Germany, United States, etc.) show the physical boundaries and interruption of space that museums create in their aim to protect artworks and control the visitor’s behavior. The exhibition brings these series together, with Refresh the Revolution produced in A4 format and Principe de Précaution , on a large-scale format composed of several sheets, between which an emptiness is visible. The name of the place and the visit date are written on each drawing in the Principe de Précaution series. Inside these drawings the focus on the measures to protect the artworks creates a new spatiality uncovering a distance between human viewer and physical space, which is both institutional and immaterial. The tension between absence and presence of artworks plays on what is seen and what is perceived. It is also a way to give a visibility to the frustration of the viewer who cannot reach or touch the works, nor see them closely.

(Excerpt from The uncovered plan by Alice Laguarda in Matthieu Martin, Principe de Précaution, October 2017, edition ABM studio)