Florent Mattei

Florent Mattei was born in 1970 and lives and works in Nice (FR)

The success of an artwork often lies in its ability to touch the heart of the viewer. To achieve this, one must know how to tell a story. And Florent Mattei’s photographs are overflowing with stories. The artist invests his images with a strong narrative space, thus opening a new and imaginary dimension while evoking the cinematic field. What happened to get here, and what will happen next? These are the questions we ask ourselves when looking at his photographs. Each of his shots is an invitation to think, to reflect, to imagine, thereby establishing a special connection with the viewer. The works extend beyond themselves and take shape in the viewer’s mind, becoming unique for each of us. Bursting with a realism of striking precision, life radiates through them. Yet he carefully avoids making them realistic images. The meticulous and perfectionist staging creates a sense of distance, allowing us to project ourselves into them with intensity and sharpness. Tension, hatred, incomprehension, violence — his images reflect the questions running through our society and his generation. They carry within them a fragment of reality, each photograph containing an element or a detail directly related to the subject of the scene. The societal context depicted in his photos is also a statement and a clear and firm commitment to the artist’s discourse. Inspired by current events and social issues that irritate or revolt him, he raises his lens to bear witness to a social tension and to a world that repeats itself each day — “so far, so good.” Thus, through multiple bridges between reality and fiction, between this fictionalized reality and the viewer, Mattei’s art seeks to be popular, challenging us and calling on us to “participate” through this mise en abyme of our society. It is popular as well in its cultural and musical references, and in its desire to restore the artist’s role as an agitator and conduit for a popular sentiment seeking expression.

— Text by Julien Camy

Florent Mattei’s work is on display during the exhibition Denis Brun, Sydney Houillier, Stéphanie Majoral, Florent Mattei, Lionel Scoccimaro, Nano Valdès, 1999, Un été à Nantes, 1999.