Mathieu Josset

Passionate about Afro-Caribbean cultures since forever, Mathieu set foot in Africa for the first time in 2009, in Bamako.

There he discovers an elsewhere made of sharing, brotherhood, passionate discussions and grandiose landscapes with which he falls in love and which will push him to return to explore all the wealth of Africa.

From the banks of the Niger to the lush forests of Cameroon, passing by the bustling capitals of the Gulf of Guinea, everything is a source of inspiration in an Africa of fascinating cultures, steeped in traditions, beliefs and legends.

The fabric is for him the symbol of this colorful, singing and dancing life. Its traditional motifs embody the very essence of African identities.

He wishes to tell both ancestral and contemporary stories, those of an Africa that is growing, transforming and spreading throughout the world, both rich in customs and in its innovative youth.

The work of Mathieu Josset, because it is a work in the sense of an artisanal process of design and manufacture, of a commitment to quality, reflection of an effective know-how, is a humble and nostalgic tribute. A tribute to the work of the weavers.

Those who share time, life, culture and heritage in their artefact. Mathieu, far from appropriating their work, tries to pay homage to it and to sketch the laborious time of a few folds the possibility of a reunion that he imagined in his heart and the memories of his travels.

Mathieu Josset's works are gestures and sensations, frame and perspectives, memory and possibility.

The folding gesture calls for volume, material and textures. Through this relation to the artist's intention and its execution, sensations arise.

From the one who searches, noses, tries, touches, sniffs and finally decides on the fabric. And who then makes it a work for a work. Those who look, step back, approach, put in perspective and surrender to repetitive patterns to reimagine the sensation of the pieces fixed on the canvas.

Each part of the work, each folding is a work in itself. In this way, the artist questions the notion of work in the craft of the work.

Are the artists the ones who initially weaved? The one who humbly borrows the fabric to reincarnate it in an artistic process or those who observe it with greedy curiosity? Greedy for colors and textures.

The desire to touch fulfilled by the happiness of seeing and guessing the underlying movement of the structure of the work. Mathieu Josset urges them to work in seeing and reflecting traditions.