On the eve of his participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Manuel Mathieu unveils a significant new body of work in Montréal with the exhibition Perineum.
With Perineum, Manuel Mathieu returns to physical and visceral concerns within his practice. Following projects marked by site-specific and spiritual explorations, this new exhibition refocuses our attention on a fundamental yet nearly imperceptible part of the body: the perineum.
Commonly referred to as the pelvic floor, this area crucially supports our organs and holds our internal weight despite being seldomly named. The perineum carries a profound symbolic charge. As the energetic base of the body and site of the root chakra, vital energy is anchored here prior to deployment. Compelled by this locus, Manuel Mathieu constructs an exhibition that explores somatic memory.
Six new paintings, three prints, and two mosaics articulate an instinctive visual language in which forms contract, fracture, and search for breath. Nurtured in collaboration with writer Stéphane Martelly, Perineum acknowledges that this integral, organic expanse is experienced inequitably across genders and inheritances. Manuel Mathieu turns to the heart of the matter, to this intimate site wherein resides a fundamental function of our survival.