Matthieu Gafsou

B.1981 - SWISS Based in Lausanne

Matthieu Gafsou was born in Romandy, the French-speaking part of western Switzerland. After completing a MA in Philosophy, Literature and Cinema at the Université de Lausanne, he studied photography at the School of Applied Arts in Vevey.

Since 2006, Matthieu has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions. He has published five books including: Transhumanism, abbreviated as H+, (2018, Kehrer) in which he explores transhumanism and kinds of body modification or enhancement. In this work Matthieu mixed a documentary approach with allegorical visions to reveal the presence of transhumanistic notions in our lives.

In Only God Can Judge Me (2014, Kehrer) Matthieu chose the Lausanne drug scene as his subject with it’s inherent tragic form of exoticism and instead creating an original work on an otherwise trivialized subject. In Surfaces (2012, Actes Sud) Matthieu sought coherence in the incoherence of Tunisia. Torn between the yearnings for Western modernity and comfort, and the trappings of traditional habitats, his photographs of façades, buildings, urban areas, and environments considered the country’s managed foreignness.

In 2009 Matthieu was awarded the prestigious ‘Prix de la fondation HSBC pour la photographie’ and subsequently was invited to contribute to Aperture Foundation's 2010 reGeneration2 exhibition. In 2014, Lausanne’s influential Musée de l'Elysée hosted Matthieu’s solo show titled ‘Only God Can Judge Me’ and in 2018, his work on ‘H+’ was exhibited at Les Rencontres de la Photographie, in Arles.

In parallel to his artistic practice, Matthieu teaches at the University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL) and he is currently based in Lausanne.

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H+

Matthieu Gafsou

Transhumanism is an intellectual movement that aims to enhance and augment the human body through the use of sciences and technique. This topic refers to everyday purposes, which are already banal, such as the use of pacemakers or smartphones. It also refers to fantasies which advocate immortality and even claim the abandonment of the body…

Alpes

With the series Alpes, Matthieu Gafsou reveals the complexity of the mountain torn as it is between different perceptions: untouched nature, romanticism heritage, and exploitation by the tourist industry. Since his series Espaces nomades Gafsou’s artistic preoccupations have been based on the connection between unspoilt nature and its domination by human beings.

Only God Can Judge Me

Matthieu Gafsou was immersed in Lausanne’s drug scene for more than a year. By using various formal approaches, he prosaically and at the same time emphatically documented the life of…

Sacré

Inevitably, this series suggest Catholicism is a male religion, and then only when they have reached a canonical age. It suggests that this is a faith deserted by its troupes, despite the child’s baptism, its confessionals awaiting clients, that it has no contact with the outside world (...)

Surfaces

Matthieu Gafsou seeks coherence in the incoherence of a country, Tunisia, creating photographs for the series “Surfaces”. Torn between the desire of Western modernity and comforts, and the utilisation of…

All the series by Matthieu Gafsou

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Matthieu Gafsou

Selected works

H+

Matthieu Gafsou

Alpes

Only God Can Judge Me

Sacré

Surfaces

Books

H+

Matthieu Gafsou

Only God Can Judge Me

Matthieu Gafsou

Alpes

Matthieu Gafsou

Sacré

Matthieu Gafsou

Interviews