2021 / 2022 : HIER
Reception with Guests from Therme Art Group Board: Prof. Christian Held with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Simon de Pury.
MATTHIAS ZINN HIER
I am pleased to present for the first time in Meisenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, works by the Berlin-based painter, draftsman and sculptor MATTHIAS ZINN. Born in 1964 in Tegernsee and now living in Berlin, the artist's works have been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions (most recently at Galerie Mai36, Zurich, 2017 and Haverkampf Galerie, Berlin, 2019) and are represented in renowned international collections.
As a longtime friend and collector of Zinns' work, I was able to invite the artist to the city of my childhood, which I consider a city en miniature, an echo chamber of european and cultural history, to realize an exhibition of his works together with him.
We are guided by the desire to connect and confront the urban view of things with the historically shaped environment of Meisenheim. The exhibition venue is the Fürstenwärther Hof, a noble residence from the 15th century. The historic building functions as a hinge between old and new: it is about to undergo a fundamental structural change, which, representative of the historic core of the site, raises questions that are omnipresent in the current architectural and urban development discourse.
Matthias Zinn's works fit into this state of transition like an aesthetic narrative: the series of images in his Heads and Women as well as his sculptural works reflect our own state of transition in today's world: faces are deconstructed and seem to create a new identity in the process of painting. Bodies seem to split up into many realities or occupy fragile, unstable positions. These works are complemented by Zinn's recent series of Trees, in which the artist makes interventions into nature that evolve into a struggle between growing form and technical structure over the course of his working process. With these works, Zinn undertakes forays that confront his own gaze and that of the viewer with challenging questions about our present time. For Matthias Zinn, says the director of the galleries and museums of the city of Cham, the great challenge lies in the planned coincidence. To transform forms (...), to dare radical decisions, but also to accept failure - until the only right form is found.
I am pleased to invite you to this exhibition, which will also be an experimental trial arrangement in the presence of Matthias Zinn at the Fürstenwärther Hof.
Prof. Christian Held, Berlin
