cusp.talk : Matthieu Croizier
Untitled (Foot on head), from the serie Everything goes dark a little further down, 2020
Please introduce yourself first ～ (For example, where do you live, your educational background, when did you become interested in art, or any content)
可以先简单介绍一下自己吗：）你现在居住在哪里，你的教育背景，从什么时间点开始对图像产生了兴趣，同时也可以是任何想说的。
Matthieu Croizier：
Hi! My pronouns are he/him, I am 27 and I am currently living in Lausanne, Switzerland. I graduated from the Bachelor Photography at ECAL (University of Art and Design of Lausanne).
Hi！我的代名词是 he/him！我今年27岁，目前住在瑞士洛桑。我毕业于ECAL（洛桑艺术与设计大学）的摄影专业。
from the serie Everything goes dark a little further down, 2020cusp. :
How would you describe your creation? (For example, commonly used media and techniques, focus on themes, visual style, etc.)
你会怎样讲述自己的创作：）
Matthieu Croizier：
I work almost exclusively with the medium of photography, and I am always interested in creating a tension, an ambiguity, a sort of weirdness, a queerness maybe. I also work a lot about my own experience as a gay person, through self-representation. Bodies, homoeroticism and monsters are some of my obsessions. I try to create images that are blurring the lines between opposite notions, such as beautiful and ugly, normal and abnormal… To me, the monstrous is beautiful and the norm, that creates only complexes, discriminations and violence, is the ugly one.
A lot of my images have a “spectacular” esthetic, as the idea of the spectacle is very important to me. There is something very similar between the way photography works and the way a show works. Photography is a tool of the spectacular. It is a tool of lie, of fantasy, of dreams and of consumption. We live in a visual world, where images have become the new language, and that is why I find it so interesting to understand its code, to be able to play with it.
我几乎只用摄影这个媒介来工作，我总是对创造一种张力、一种模糊性、一种怪异、一种同性恋的状态兴趣。我也通过自我表现，创作了很多关于我自己作为一个同性恋者的经验。身体、同性恋和怪兽是我的一些痴迷之处。我试图创造图像，模糊相反概念之间的界限，如美丽和丑陋，正常和不正常......对我来说，怪兽是美丽的，而规范，只创造复杂，歧视和暴力，是丑陋的。
我的很多图像都有一种 "惊人的"的审美，因为奇特的想法对我非常重要。摄影的工作方式和表演的工作方式之间有一些非常相似的地方。摄影是一个壮观的工具。它是一个谎言、幻想、梦想和消费的工具。我们生活在一个视觉世界里，图像已经成为新的语言，这就是为什么我发现理解它的规则，能够通过这个媒介去玩乐是如此有趣。
from the serie Et Le Soleil, 2022
cusp. :
What cultural/factors have influenced your creation? (e.g. literature, movies, music, games, architecture, etc.)
可以告诉大家你创作受到哪些文化和因素的影响吗？
Matthieu Croizier：
I think movies have had a huge influence on me – and still have! My parents would show me all sorts of movies when I was a child, I was often too young to understand them but it helped me to be curious and looking for other form of visual narrations than the mainstream ones, and for that I am very grateful. I remember they took me to watch a black and white Chinese movie – of which I can’t remember the name – with English subtitles. I must have been like 6. I didn’t get a single word, obviously, but I still cherish the memory of it. My dad would force us to watch Mulholland Drive like twice a year. Movies and series have been giving me nightmares, thoughts, visual pleasure and emotions of all sorts and I just couldn’t do without them. Here are a few of my fav’ director’s names that pops into my head: David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Julia Ducournau, Leos Carax, Claire Denis, Yann Gonzalez, Bertrand Mandico, Yórgos Lánthimos…
我认为电影对我产生了巨大的影响，现在仍然如此！当我还是个孩子的时候，我的父母会给我看各种各样的电影，我经常因为年纪太小而看不懂，但这帮助我对主流电影以外的其他形式的视觉叙述充满好奇并且也尝试寻找这样的视觉语言，对此我非常感激。我记得我大概六岁的时候，他们带我去看一部黑白的中国电影，我不记得名字了但记得有有英文字幕。但很明显，我一个字也没听懂，但我仍然很珍惜这个记忆。我爸爸会强迫我们看《穆赫兰道》，大概每年两次hhh。电影和系列片一直在给我带来噩梦、思考、视觉享受和各种情感，我离不开它们。我脑海中浮现的几个我喜欢的导演的名字。大卫-林奇（David Lynch）、大卫-柯南伯格（David Cronenberg）、朱莉娅-杜库诺（Julia Ducournau）、里奥斯-卡拉克斯（Leos Carax）、克莱尔-丹尼斯（Claire Denis）、扬-冈萨雷斯（Yann Gonzalez）、伯特兰-曼迪科（Bertrand Mandico）、尤尔戈斯-兰斯莫斯（Yórgos Lánthimos）...
from the serie Et Le Soleil, 2022
cusp. : Can you introduce one or two of your own works/projects in detail?
能否详细介绍自己的 1、2 件作品/项目?
Matthieu Croizier :
Maybe I can start to talk about the series Everything goes dark a little further down, with I started to work on almost 3 years ago now, during my lats year of Bachelor. It is a personal exploration of the concept of monstrosity, as well as an exploration of my own queerness. At the beginning of this project, I started to examine the construction of monstrosity, from the invention of hysteria in the 19th century to the role of freak shows, where photography - and more precisely staged photography - was playing a crucial role. Images were manipulated, retouched : for example tall people were photographed sitting on very tiny chairs so they would look huge, they drew hair directly on the negative, etc… All of that for the show, and to reinforce the opposition between what is normal and what is not. And today we still hold on to similar binary ideas, actively distinguishing between what is normal and abnormal, sick and healthy, beautiful and ugly. I wanted to blur these ideas with this work, to show that monstrosity exists within us all and that it is a concept that has been shaped and constructed over time.
Using my own body as a raw material, through self-representation, I seek to fabricate monstrosity out of simple things surrounding me, to embrace it rather than to reject it. I decided to use my own body, as I am fascinated by the political reappropriation of certain stigmatizing terms, such as queer or faggot. I find it so beautiful and exquisite to turn what is used as an insult into something wonderful, something strong and powerfull. And this idea of claiming my own monstrosity really helped me in my personal life, to become who I am. So that’s really what I’m trying to embody in my work. For me, this project is a love letter to the abnormal. The photographs depict a sort of an extraordinary act of metamorphosis, where fragments are melded together to create something new.
But despite the spectacular aesthetics, I try to leave some clues for the viewer to find, so that the more you look into the pictures, the more you can see how it is constructed and very easily staged. As the monstrosity, which seems disturbing at first, ends up revealing its own construction, you realize that what you are looking at is just a show of banalities. So in the end, it’s really just the way we show something that will determine whether it is normal or not.
也许我可以再往下说说 Everything goes dark 系列，我几乎是在三年前开始创作的，在我本科的最后一年。这是对畸形概念的一次个人探索，也是对我自己的同性恋的一次探索。在这个项目的开始，我开始研究怪胎的构造，从19世纪歇斯底里的发明到畸形表演的作用，其中“摄影”更确切地说“舞台摄影”发挥了关键作用。图像被篡改、修饰：例如，高个子的人被拍到坐在非常小的椅子上，所以他们看起来很巨大，或者他们直接在底片上画头发等等......所有这些都是为了展示并加强什么是正常的和什么是不正常的之间的对抗。今天，我们仍然坚持类似的二元观念，积极地去区分什么是正常和不正常，生病和健康，美丽和丑陋。我想通过作品来模糊这些观念，表明畸形存在于每一个个体的内部，它是一个随着时间推移而被塑造和构建的概念。
我用自己的身体作为原材料，通过自我表现，我试图从我周围的简单事物中制造出畸形，去拥抱它而不是拒绝它。我决定使用我自己的身体，因为我对某些污名化术语的政治再利用很着迷，比如说 queer 或者是 faggot。我发现把侮辱性的东西变成某一些完美的强大的有力量的东西是如此的美丽和晶莹剔透。这种声称自己是怪胎的想法在我的个人生活中真的帮助了我，让我成为我自己。所以这也是我试图在我的作品中体现的东西。对我来说，这个项目是一封写给不正常人的情书。这些照片描绘了一种非同寻常的蜕变行为，破碎的东西被融合在一起，创造出新的东西。
但是，尽管有壮观的美学，我试图留下一些线索让观众去寻找，所以你越看照片，你就越能看到它是如何构建的，而且非常容易上演。当一开始看起来令人不安的怪胎最终揭示了它自己的构造时，你会意识到你正在看的只是一场平庸的表演。所以到最后，真的只是我们展示东西的方式，决定它是否正常。
from the serie Everything goes dark a little further down, 2020
cusp. :
Can you introduce your life and creative state? What are your special work habits? (It can include inspiration collection, daily work habits, the process from inspiration to realization, etc.)
可以讲述一下你的生活和创作状态?
Matthieu Croizier：
I watch and collect a lot of images, fragments of text, ideas, and then I start to work very intuitively. I have images that pops up in my head and I just feel the urge to realize them. The projects is then building itself step by step, by assembling my images as fragments of a new story. I don’t have a clear idea of where I’m going from the start, only a general idea, as I need to leave space for life, accidents and unexpected stuff to come on the way.
我观察并收集大量的图像、文本片段和想法，然后我开始非常直观地工作。我有一些图像在我的脑海中浮现，我只是觉得有冲动去实现它们。然后项目是一步一步地建立自己，通过组装我的图像作为一个新故事的片段。我从一开始就没有一个明确的想法，只有一个大致的想法，因为我需要为生活、意外和意外的东西留出空间来。
from the serie Et Le Soleil, 2022
cusp. :
What are your daily hobbies?
你每天的习惯是什么？
Matthieu Croizier：
Watching series, movies and vaping.
看连续剧、电影和抽烟。
from the serie Everything goes dark a little further down, 2021
cusp. :
What is the current concern and thinking?
最近每天思考和关心的问题是什么?
Matthieu Croizier：
I would say all the ideas I have already mentioned earlier.
我想说我前面已经提到的所有想法。
from the serie Everything goes dark a little further down, 2021
cusp. :Can you talk about favorite artists and favorite books?
可以讲讲你喜欢的艺术家和喜欢的读物吗？
Matthieu Croizier：
I would say Mark McKnight, and his book Heaven is a Prison published by Loose Joints. Definitely a heartstopper. I have been obsessed with Mark’s work since I’ve discovered it. But they are so many artists and photographers that I love. Let me just check my desktop wallpaper to give you an extract: well there is Mark McKnight again, Wolfgang Tillmans, John Divola, and the painter Vojtěch Kovařík.
I am also always drawned to books that are working like an Atlas, such as Batia Suter’s Parallel Encyclopedia, or The Archives of Tony Oursler. I can spend hours digging into them, always discovering new images, and news connections between them creating a new story.
我想说的是Mark McKnight，以及他的Heaven is a Prison，由Loose Joints出版。这绝对是一本令人心动的书。自从我发现Mark 的作品后，我就一直痴迷于他的作品。但是我喜欢的艺术家和摄影师太多了。让我检查一下我的桌面壁纸，给你一个摘要：还有 Mark McKnight、Wolfgang Tillmans、John Divola,和画家Vojtěch Kovařík。
我也总是被那些像地图集一样工作的书所吸引，比如 Batia Suter的 Parallel Encyclopedia ，或者 The Archives of Tony Oursler。我可以花几个小时去挖掘它们，总是发现新的图像，以及它们之间的联系，创造一个新的故事。
from the serie Et Le Soleil, 2022
cusp. :
What do you think is the happiest thing you have ever encountered?
觉得遇到过最开心的事情？
Matthieu Croizier：
I think I have to say dogs. Lilith, Lola, Pablo, Skip and Kali, I love you.
我想我必须说是狗狗们。Lilith, Lola, Pablo, Skip 和 Kali, 我爱你们。
Untitled (Lunes), from the serie Everything goes dark a little further down, 2021
cusp. : Talk about future plans?
你未来的规划是什么？
Matthieu Croizier：
I am currently working on publishing a book with Mörel Books. I love books so much, and this has been a dream of mine for so long now! And with Aron Mörel especially, I really wanted to work with him as I just love his way of seeing and the books he has published. So I’m super excited!!
Apart form that, I want to keep working on exhibitions, and also on developing a new serie I just started to work on this year, which is called Et le soleil engloutira la Terre – it means “And the sun will engulf the earth”.
Additionally, I am also working for commission works. I have some cool projects coming up and I hope more will follow.
我目前正在与Mörel书店合作出版一本书。我非常喜欢书，这也是我长久以来的一个梦想。特别是Aron Mörel ，我真的想和他合作，因为我喜欢他的观察方式和他所出版的书。所以我超级兴奋！
除此以外，我还想继续做展览，以及开发我今年刚开始的新系列作品，它叫做《Et le soleil engloutira la Terre》-意思是 "太阳将吞噬地球"。
此外，我也在为委托作品工作。我有一些很酷的项目要做，我希望以后会有更多。
Portrait, 2022
cusp. :
What do you think about the theme of this exhibition?
这次展览主题的看法？
Matthieu Croizier：
Well, I am very happy as the theme of this exhibition is very similar – parallel I think – to the ideas I try to explore in my own practice. You mentioned “to wire-walk its way towards an unknown destination”, and I feel just the same.
And on top of that, I absolutely love Bowei Yang’s work, as well as the work of all the other artist I got to discover, so I am thrilled to be part of this beautiful exhibition! Thank you for inviting me to take part in this <3
嗯，我很高兴，因为这个展览的主题非常相似--我认为是平行的--与我在自己的实践中试图探索的想法相似。你提到了 "用钢丝走向一个未知的目的地"，我也有同样的感觉。
此外，我非常喜欢Yang Bowei的作品，以及我发现的所有其他艺术家的作品，所以我很高兴能成为这个美丽的展览的一部分。谢谢你邀请我参加这个展览 <3