{"id":671657,"date":"2026-05-15T17:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/671657\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:52:08","slug":"mounting-rene-matics-snapshots-in-perspex-isnt-really-enough-to-make-them-interesting-deutsche-borse-photography-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/671657\/","title":{"rendered":"Mounting Rene Mati\u0107\u2019s snapshots in Perspex isn\u2019t really enough to make them interesting | Deutsche B\u00f6rse photography prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 29, Rene Mati\u0107 is the youngest ever person to win the \u00a330,000 Deutsche B\u00f6rse Photography Foundation prize<\/a>. They were nominated for their solo exhibition As Opposed to the Truth at CCA Berlin<\/a> \u2013 there is currently a much smaller reconfiguration representing part of the show<\/a> at the Photographers\u2019 Gallery in London. Mati\u0107 was also the youngest artist ever to be nominated for the Turner prize last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are things I like about Mati\u0107. I like the way they challenge what counts in life and art, and what counts as British. Their 2022 work, Upon This Rock (shown in Berlin though not in the current display in London) \u2013 a photographic installation and a film exploring the artist\u2019s father, Paul, and his involvement with the skinhead movement \u2013 felt like it was breaking new ground, conceptually and materially. Mati\u0107\u2019s yearning to understand masculinity and fatherhood as forces shaping national identity, and the way they incorporate new stories into the folds of Britain\u2019s historical fabric, felt original and exciting.<\/p>\n

Yet a lot of Mati\u0107\u2019s other work doesn\u2019t feel mature enough for the photographer to have taken the prize so early in their career. The installation Feelings Wheel, a series of diaristic snapshots which is shown at the Photographers\u2019 Gallery, feels like something you\u2019d paste on your wall or Tumblr at university. They are pretty mediocre pictures, safe from Instagram censorship, and arranging them in Perspex doesn\u2019t make them more interesting. I find there is an annoying insularity, a sense of preaching to the converted, whereas the most effective art builds bridges between artist and viewer, allowing people who aren\u2019t part of the gang to understand it and be moved by it, too.<\/p>\n

Preaching to the converted? \u2026 Rene Mati\u0107 Clapham, London, 2022. Photograph: \u00a9 Rene Mati\u0107. Courtesy the Artist and Arcadia Missa, London<\/p>\n

Too often, Mati\u0107\u2019s images are only made interesting by the different ways they display them in assemblages, spatial and sculptural configurations. Their work draws comparisons with Wolfgang Tillmans or Nan Goldin, who both photographed their own subcultures and communities, but with more edge and verve. With slideshows to music (in the case of Goldin\u2019s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency<\/a>) and multi-format installations responding to the space (Tillmans<\/a>), both photographers cast aside the traditional focus on a single image, creating new ways of looking at multiple photographs that Mati\u0107 adapts but doesn\u2019t quite move forward.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with art that focuses on identity \u2013 especially identities that have been consistently erased and ignored in this country. The fact a queer, working-class person of colour won this award is good as a statement for what the Deutsche B\u00f6rse prize can stand for. But based on what Mati\u0107 has done for photography, I don\u2019t think they should have won.<\/p>\n

Autobiography can\u2019t be the only thing a work has to offer. I am not sure what\u2019s really radical or nuanced about Mati\u0107\u2019s photographs of flags and tattoos, or people kissing at Glastonbury. At times, the vulnerability and compassion seems performative rather than sincere, and there\u2019s not enough tension \u2013 questions in the work for the viewer to resolve. Leaving the exhibition, I felt flat \u2013 though there are ideas, they need more time to percolate. What this win seems to tell us about photography now is that how you market yourself is possibly more important than the work you make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 29, Rene Mati\u0107 is the youngest ever person to win the \u00a330,000 Deutsche B\u00f6rse Photography Foundation prize.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-671657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}