At the geographical and cultural antipodes of the previous showing in Japanese territory (TWELVE gallery @Tokyo – from 05/30 to 06/08), the new exhibition will stay on home turf, perhaps to better shake up the local terroir… and thus find out if the people of Auvergne are tough only in character, or in their nerves as well.
“MATKA”, in Russian, means “Uterus”.
A growing fascination for Slavic culture and its Cyrillic alphabet occupied the leisure hours of the past year in learning this curious language. An augmented hybridization of the Latin and Greek alphabets, some of its 33 signs—though looking unmistakably like our familiar letters—are pronounced absolutely nothing like their Western counterparts.
But this does not apply to the letters M, A, T, and K. MATKA is pronounced just as a Western European would read it.
The word MATrix then immediately comes to mind.
The source, the starting object, the conception chamber.
But also this warm, benevolent, and protective environment: maternal, where we love to take refuge to recharge, where we are born, and where we can be reborn. Like infinite little nested Russian dolls: the Matryoshka.
MATKA is the expression of a space for creation without shackles, without prejudice, without restraint, where the bruised being regenerates and the being-in-the-making grows. It is that subjective place that every creative mind knows, to fully find oneself and give free rein to one’s need for expression.
“MATKA” is an exhibition that will be held at the Micro-Folie in Saint-Éloy-les-Mines (63700) – a cultural space and digital museum – a project led by La Villette (Paris) locally and internationally. It will be on view during the months of July, August, and September 2026, with an opening reception on the launch day: THURSDAY, JULY 02 – from 6:00 PM, and a workshop with the public two weeks later
(Friday, July 17 – from 2 PM to 5 PM – by reservation – ages 7 and up).
