Exhibition Information

Exhibition view

Installation View of "Matti Braun : Ku Sol" at Gallery Hyundai, 2022

Exhibition view

Installation View of "Matti Braun : Ku Sol" at Gallery Hyundai, 2022

Exhibition view

Installation View of "Matti Braun : Ku Sol" at Gallery Hyundai, 2022

Exhibition view

Installation View of "Matti Braun : Ku Sol" at Gallery Hyundai, 2022

			Gallery Hyundai presents Ku Sol, the first solo exhibition in Asia by German artist Matti Braun, from September 21 to October 23. 

The exhibition features a wide selection of around 50 key works by Braun, including his beautiful abstract painting series produced by applying different colors of dye to silk; his glassworksproduced in collaboration with Bavarian glass artisans using traditional techniques; and his set of six photographs of an experimental play inspired by Indian film director Satyajit Ray’s unrealized script titled The Alien. 

Working in a broad range of areas including not only art but also culture, history and science, Matti Braun weaves together vast webs of meaning as he enthusiastically discovers and explores lesser-known narratives. His work is based on research into cultural migration, exchange and transformation across Eastern and Western times and spaces, as long with particular figures and themes ranging from physicist Vikram Sarabhai and Mahatma Gandhi to Le Corbusier, India’s space exploration program, the unfilmed script for The Alien by Satyajit Ray, and Steven Spielberg’s E.T. In the process, it provides an opportunity to viewers to break with standardized frameworks of interpretation and form readings based on their own individual narratives. The exhibition title Ku Sol is a poetic evocation of Braun’s artistic vision, which involves forging cultural and linguistic connections. Combining the Finnish word “kuu” meaning “moon” with the Latin word “sol” meaning “sun,” it is a title with both natural and cosmic associations, echoing the artist’s approach of incorporating intersubjectivity and ambiguity without representing a particular object. 

For the colorful glassworksplaced on round tables, Braun collaborated with glass artisans using the traditional craft techniques of Bavaria. This glass sculpture work is produced with a traditional craft technique that involves inserting tubes into molten glass and blowing, yet the resulting mysterious combinations of colors seem untouched by human hands. The rounded shapes in the work recall distant planets, the eggs of an alien lifeform, or the strange eyes of aliens (outsiders) as they are endlessly presented to us in the media. Braun’s glass sculptures can be interpreted not simply as reflections of his personal interest in science fiction or alien beings, but as different “eyes” representing his perspective on an unknown world. Also, by alternating between the genres of crafts and art, the artist shows his own orientation toward experimenting with media in a broader sphere, blurring genre boundaries as he challenges the ways in which “glass” is defined as a medium in artistic discourse. 

Braun’s Untitled series of abstract silk paintings also shares resonance with the properties of “alien” beings in terms of the absence of representational elements and transcendence of form. Suffused with magical glimmering that seems to reflect light beams in space or alternating light and darkness, this work gives the impression of opening up a new dimension in space and time. Matti Braun began producing silk-based work in 2008 and created batik designs early on with geometric patterns and line/ray motifs. In 2014, he began experimenting with abstract silk paintings blending different colors together. This would eventually transform into his current style of abstract work that creates highly delicate spectrums of color through the application of paint over sleek and meticulous woven panels of silk. These entrancing silk painting works boast qualities that are religious, meditative and even mesmerizing. They are based on the artist’s painstaking in-depth research into the history of silk and traditional textile techniques. By applying color in such intense and restrained ways to a fabric that has been used since ancient times for religious and ritualistic purposes, Braun separates silk from its context as a traditional material—a very important theme in his body of work. The cultural heritage that he explores and the stories and themes of interrelatedness that he shares are meant less as explanatory elements for his work and more as a way of guiding viewers into a new visual experience and journey in search of meaning. 

(Source: Gallery Hyundai)