Mateo Maté

26 juny - 12 set. 2025

This series of works aims to empirically demonstrate a theory born from an intuition. I am attempting to carry out an act of justice—to denounce a silent and malicious theft. I seek to return to art what war has stolen from it. Military camouflage would not exist without the discovery and development of a visual language and iconography particular to pre-Impressionism and Impressionism. These movements stripped all the natural elements of the landscape down to their basic forms and reinterpreted them as impressions of spots and colors, perceived by the human retina in a single glance. From the very moment of that discovery—and proving that no human invention is ever innocuous or free from the risk of perverse application—military uniforms around the world changed radically in concept. They ceased to be merely symbols of representation and power and became offensive, albeit passive, weapons. From that point on, through a basic yet highly sophisticated iconography, uniforms began to imitate the natural environment in which different military units were to be deployed. Artists from across the Western world contributed to the development of both applications of the same invention: Impressionism as the civilian application, and camouflage as the military one. Using the uniforms of various armies around the world, I am trying to recompose and return this iconography to its artistic origins. For every texture, type of terrain, vegetation, or weather phenomenon that might define a landscape in a painting, there exists, within some military force on the planet, a uniform that can serve as the raw material—as if it were a tube of paint. Mateo Maté

Miaz Brothers

26 juny - 12 set. 2025

En el fons, sempre és el mateix joc. Sostreure per a obrir. Esborrar els contorns per a deixar espai a l'alè de l'altre.   Cada vegada que tornem a exposar, ens preguntem: què veuran, de veritat? Mai vam voler mostrar un rostre. Ens interessa el moviment que ocorre quan intentes reconèixer-lo. La distància entre el que saps i el que desitges veure.   La pintura, per a nosaltres, mai va ser la confirmació del real, sinó la seva necessària dissolució, una manera de crear buit fèrtil, zones d'ombra on la consciència es posa en marxa. L'espectador es converteix en coautor, obligat a imaginar, recordar, equivocar-se. I això, per a nosaltres, és el gest més humà que existeix.   En l'època de la vigilància total, del reconeixement facial i de la identitat com a codi escanejable, treballem al revés: li regalem als nostres subjectes un rostre que mai podràs desxifrar. Un enigma. Un anonimat preciós. Una presència que s'escapa com un somni, però que se't queda dins.   Aquí hem obert encara més la forma, deixant que alguna cosa respiri per si sol: una petjada, un ressò, una figura que només existeix si t'acostes prou com per a tornar a perdre-la.   Cada obra és un exercici per a qui mira: no intentis enfocar, deixa que la imatge sorgeixi des de dins.   Al final, continuem sent nosaltres dos. Dos germans que van triar la boira en lloc del reflector. Que no busquen dir què veure, sinó crear un espai on un pugui veure's millor a si mateix. Each time we exhibit again, we ask ourselves: what will they truly see? We never set out to show a face. What moves us is the motion that begins when one tries to recognize it. The distance between what you know and what you long to see. For us, painting has never been about confirming reality, but dissolving it — a way to create fertile voids, shadow zones where awareness stirs. The viewer becomes a co-author, compelled to imagine, to recall, to misread. And to us, that is the most human gesture there is. In the age of total surveillance, facial recognition, and identity as a scannable code, we work in reverse: we offer our subjects a face you’ll never be able to decode. An enigma. A precious anonymity. A presence that slips away like a dream, yet lingers within. Here, we’ve opened the form even further, letting something breathe on its own: a trace, an echo, a figure that only exists if you come close enough to lose it again. Each piece is a quiet exercise for the one who looks: don’t try to focus — let the image emerge from within. In the end, we are still just the two of us. Two brothers who chose the mist over the spotlight. Not to tell you what to see, but to offer a space where you might better see yourself.