Entransito 2026 Terminal de ferries
Perception and reality in transit
LINKS:
https://mattmuir.info/
Flags have been a part of my practice since 2022, though not as a commentary on nationalism or identity. Instead, I am interested in how they function as „loaded“ materials within the context of sculpture. A central question I’ve had is what physical form gives to—or takes away from—the heavy meanings embedded in a national flag.
Consider the semiotic distance between a Brazilian flag bikini and a broom painted with the German black, red, and gold. How can the associations of a nation’s flag be layered with other objects such that those meanings cancel each other out or become impossible to read?
Flag associations are often so dominant that using them as a medium risks reducing a sculpture to the bare didacticism of the flag itself. My goal is to break that inherent didacticism with form—to „free“ a loaded material so its internal mechanisms are exposed.
Matt Muir (b. 1989, Knysna, South Africa) is a multidisciplinary conceptual artist based in Hamburg, Germany. He holds a Master’s degree in Fine Art from the HFBK Hamburg and a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of Cape Town. His work explores the nature of art itself: how we perceive it, how we assign value to it, and the absurdity of its existence in a post-internet era.
Muir’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across Europe, and he is the recipient of awards including the Karl H. Ditze Prize and the Arbeitstipendium from the City of Hamburg.
