Pierre Lionel Matte

Some words about my works and a short biography

My work has its origin in my personal biography and daily events, contemporary politics and litterature discussing national identity, xenophobia, ecology and art-history. I believe that making and experiencing art is a constant process of learning, and new personal encounters with people and places will inspire my work to always be in a process of change.

I find inspiration in art, cinema, comics and litterature with a conceptual, feminist, social and postcolonial approach.

My projects are often connected to each other, circling around some basic themes. Some with a poetic voice, others function as “one-liners". Humour and visual abundance characterize many of my works.

I enjoy using a wide range of different techniques, materials, visual styles and aesthetic attitudes in my work, challenging myself to avoid repetition.

My work is realized through sculptures, photography, installations, books, videos, animation, sound, drawing, paintings and text. Some projects are related to political activism, used by organisations, or published in books and magazines.

Short biography;

I grew up in Tønsberg, an old maritime city south of Oslo, with norwegian mother and french-belgian father. Early experience of split national identity has been an important motivation for working with national identity related topics as an artist.

I spend the mid 1980s working as an illustrator for solidarity-organisations and South America-related magazins, among others The Liberation Front´s Radio Farabundo Marti ( El Salvador).

From 1987-92 I studied at the Art Academy in Trondheim ( KIT ), Norway 

In 1993 I moved to Poland for a year to study the history of polish contemporary art and its relation to political rupture. In 1994 I spend 4 months in Chile and Bolivia, studying South American art-history, changing my thinking about art and the artist role in society.

In addition to my work as an artist I have since the 1990s taught and lectured on the history of The Avantgarde Art at Einar Granum Art School, Oslo. Since 2001 this has included giving lectures on The History of Experimental Cinema at Nordland Art Film School in Kabelvåg, Lofoten, Northern Norway.

I live and work in Oslo