Mezzanine Sud 2023 Prize

Matthieu Haberard (Toulouse, 1991) lives and works in Paris. He received a BA in Fine Art from the ISDAT, Toulouse, in 2013, and a MA in Fine Art from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, in 2016. Moving between heterogeneous languages, Matthieu Haberard’s artistic practice investigates the threshold that separates childhood from adulthood. It is in this limbo, ambiguous and full of potential, that Haberard’s poetics becomes concrete, poised between childish fantasies – fights, metamorphosis, titanic enterprises and feats – and the ironic representation of reality. Through a playful and attentive look at the contemporaneity, Haberard gives life to sculptures that recall the mystical and warlike imagination of the Middle Ages: masks, swords, shields and armour meticulously decorated and handcrafted with materials such as wood or cardboard. Intended as relics of bygone eras and fictitious battles, his works –desemantized and stripped of their defensive function – remind us of the blurred boundary between play and violence, innocence and malice, childlike desire and disillusionment that inevitably looms with maturity. His drawings are often inspired by traditional Chinese and Japanese martial patterns, distilled down to their most minimalist reduction.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2017, 2019 and 2022); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2021); L’assaut de la menuiserie, Saint-Étienne (2021); and École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris (2016). His work has been featured in group shows at Palais des Beaux Arts, Paris (2020); Galerie Hussenot, Paris (2020); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2020); Minimarket, Paris (2019); Bwa Gallery, Warsaw (2019); Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2019); Halle de la Villette, Paris (2019); Fondation Emerige, Paris (2018); DOC, Paris (2020); Wendy Gallery, Paris (2018); and Fondation d’entreprise Pernod Ricard (2017). In 2022 Haberard was artist in residence at Maroquinerie de Guyenne in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (Gironde) in the context of the Artists’ Residencies program promoted by Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.