Reiner Maria Matysik
Reiner Maria Matysik focuses his artistic work on the dialogue between science and the visual arts. He draws on an extensive repertoire of various materials with which he develops models of future organisms. These fictional “bionts” are produced in his experimental laboratory and are suggestive of living organisms. By way of this artistic practice, he asks questions about the further development of genetic engineering and its significance for evolution and for the future. The artist operates on the assumption that the boundaries between plants, humans and animals will gradually become fuzzy and blurred in the future.
His “cloud” pieces can be seen as a reaction to man-made climate change, which brings with it floods, storms, temperature fluctuations and extreme rain events. The cloud machine transforms the water in the landscaped pond in the garden of grasses at the Akademie der Künste into clouds. The rectangular pond is part of a garden of well-tended istorical grasses and perennials, located on the upper floor of the academy and sealed off by glass walls, isolating it from the surrounding (urban) landscape. Like a hortus conclusus, it sits elevated above the natural ground of the Tiergarten park.
Despite its artificial nature, microorganisms, fungi, plants and animals live in the pond. But what happens to them when their basis for life is pumped out and transformed into clouds? Here it would be interesting for the artist to carry out an ecological study on bodies of water; Matysik is familiar with comparable scientific studies on animals and microscopic life forms, having already conducted such studies in cooperation with various institutes. After it dissipates, the cloud returns the water it contains to nature. Matysik thus fosters awareness among visitors, making them conscious of a process that is conveyed without additional words. Even though the artist uses energy to create this natural process of transformation from water to cloud and back to water, this energy is not wasted, as it enables an experience that extends into the unknown.
Anke Hervol
In the exhibition:
Reiner Maria Matysik
Wolkenmaschine, 2021
Steam generator
170 × 75 × 57 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Reiner Maria Matysik
Wolken, 2021
Bioplastic, dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist
