mathias kiss
interview and photography by OLIVIER ZAHM
portraits by GIASCO BERTOLI
pushing the french decorative
tradition toward abstraction and
contemporary art
OLIVIER ZAHM — Are you from Paris originally?
MATHIAS KISS — Yes, I am Parisian.
OLIVIER ZAHM — What’s your relationship to the city? Do you like Paris?
MATHIAS KISS — I have a symbiotic relation with Paris. Paris leads me back to the cultural and historical dimensions that are obviously part of my work. I began working when I was 14, with all the trauma that entails. I trained as a painter-glazier. I was doing restoration for historical monuments. From 14 on, I worked at the Comédie-Française, the Opéra Garnier, the Louvre, the Council of State, the Constitutional Council…
OLIVIER ZAHM — What exactly were you doing there?
MATHIAS KISS — I was restoring moldings, walls, and architectural elements. At the Louvre, for instance, there was a…