Morning Kisses
Converted ex-artisan, Mathias Kiss mixes the decorative and contemporary arts, rigour and eccentricity, mirrors and gold decorations. Meeting at his ‘Kiss Room’ at La Perle cafe in Paris.
BY LÉA TRICHTER PARTIENTE PHOTOGRAPHS BY: MAXIME LEYVASTRE
Are you a morning person?
Not really, I wake up when I want, normally around 10.
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Your favourite places?
La Perle cafe (78, rue Vieille-du-Temple), the Café de la Poste (124, rue de Turenne) and the Taxi Jaune (13, rue Chapon), in Paris.
What do you have for breakfast?
A café crème without foam and an orange juice.
Do you sleep late?
Yes, but I am not a party animal. I love the night because that is when I can spend time with my accomplices.
What are your hobbies?
I do Thai Boxing.
Where did you study?
I was placed in a correctional facility of the CM2 in the 4th arrondissement. At the age of 14 they oriented me towards a study of glass decoration and installation. After three years of training, I joined the ‘Compagnons’ with the hope to change the future that I had been condemned to. For 15 years, I lived and worked as a labourer and spent time with older people.
What are the ‘Compagnons du devoir’?
It is an association for labourers, as strict as the clergy or the army! I worked in areas full of history, like the Louvre and I perfected my technique, even though it was rigid and academic. I quit in 2002 to join as an associate at Attilalou, a decorative arts studio.
What changed most for you then?
Saying ‘I’ instead of ‘we’.
Which work caused the fallout?
Unquestionably, Le Miroir Froissé in 2008, the completion of a work on the absence of a right angle.
Some of your more recent works?
The ‘Double Je’ exposition at the Palais de Tokyo where we put up Golden Snake, a labyrinth of decorated gold paper ridges, the Radio Room installation for the house of Boucheron, Place Vendôme, decoration of the Season restaurant and the Café de la Poste in the Marais, and more recently, an installation on site at the Alain Gutharc gallery, first presented in Brussels’s, during the Yia Art Fair (where I was laureate in 2016), which consisted of covering the ground with gold paper to interrogate the spectators by having them advance and participate in the wear and tear of this precious metal.
What is your artistic method?
Complete immersion in my work.
How was the ‘Kiss Room’ born?
My friend, Jean Philippe, the owner of La Perle café, gave me a free pass to redo this space. I created a room, isolated from noise and composed of a thousand mirrors, of a thousand reflections and an unedited band created by Nicolas Godin, of the group Air.
What are your upcoming projects?
A production for the next shoe collection by Hermès, two expositions at the Elle Gallery in Zurich, from next March to June, and at Mudac in Lausanne from May to October. I am going to try and live a life of retirement in the ‘Kiss Room’ from the 1st to the 31st of March. I am also writing a book, at the moment, on brutal ornamentation.
What is your motto?
Less blah blah blah and more results.
What moves you?
Freedom. I am learning to unlearn.
www.mathiaskiss.com
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