Events/Openings

We take great pleasure in presenting “BIC”, the first solo exhibition by Matias Bechtold at Laura Mars Grp.

Matias Bechtold designs imposing structural formations and widely branching, visionary urban topographies. For his constructions he uses packaging materials made from plastics and cardboard as well as common household gadgets and appliances, transforming them into architectural units. The “other gaze” by way of which Matias Bechtold perceives our world is in essence determined by a freedom from thinking true to scale. For Bechtold large can effortlessly become small, and small can just as easily become large. To him the real dimensions of any thing, be it a highrise tower or a vacuum cleaner, are of merely secondary importance; rather he perceives about these and other things structural relations regarding their shape und styling – and may thus transform something as mundane as orange-colored display trays for throwaway lighters into elements of a building’s façade replete with see-thru views of intricately furnished and sometimes illuminated-from-within rooms. Thus scenes, lounge areas, sci-fi cockpits, or architectural structures such as the current work BIC are created with amazingly accurate craftsmanship and a joyous obsession with detail, so much so that one might suspect Bechtold had wanted to truly reanimate all these discarded materials.

Matias Bechtold, born on Ibiza, Spain, lives and works in Berlin.
Exhibitions (selection): 2013: »Schauplatz Stadt«, Kunstmuseum Mühlheim a.d. Ruhr (G) (curated by Beate Reese); »kultur:stadt«, Akademie der Künste, Berlin and Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (G) (curated by Matthias Sauerbruch); »Im Inneren der Apparate«, Museum der Dinge, Werkbundarchiv, Berlin (S); »Wunderkammer«, Berlin and Stettin (curated by Peter Funken) 2012: »Block«, Galerie Filipp, Leipzig (S) 2011: »Berghain Novelle«, Galerie Laura Mars Grp., Berlin (G); »Halleluhwah! Hommage à Can«, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (curated by Christoph Tannert); 2010 »Re-Imagining Architecture«, Galerie Aedes, Berlin (G) (curated by Lukas Feireiss)