Matthias Contzen was born in 1964 in Aschaffenburg, Germany. Attended the Sculpture course at the European Academy of Fine Arts in Trier in 1987, where he held his first exhibition. In 1991, completed the Sculpture course in Munich. Completed Design course at the Arts and Crafts Guild of the Sarrebruck School of Fine Arts, in 1995, and in the same year was awarded 3rd prize in International Design Competition “Cultures & Matières”. Completed a postgraduate course in sculpture in Koblenz in 1998. Living in Portugal since 1998 and working at “Sculpture Factory” near Lisbon. Was awarded with the highest sculpture Price of Portugal “Prémio City Desk” in 2002.

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The main Inspiration and Motivation of his work as a sculptor, is the deep desire to disentangle the true nature of Form. Where does Form comes from and why does it mysteriously manifest in a certain way, following a sacred, hidden pattern, tangible in the whole UNIVERSE, both in micro and macro structures of all the elements? That is the core question, propelling his livelong artistic research.

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In the beginning of his career he was very much inspired by both, nature itself and other artists inspired by nature, like Henry Moore, Max Ernst and Jean Arp. He was also fascinated by the approach used by Ernst and Arp, which is called the Free Association: By clearing the mind and looking at the chaos in a contemplative way, one is enabled to get a glimpse of the essence or “truth” beyond reality and translate it intuitively into an inspired artwork, avoiding the ratio and the planning of the mind, which could lead to “artificial” results.

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Some 30 years ago, he first heard about the concept, that form follows Sound and Frequencies, in Joachim E. Berendt’s Book “The World is Sound”. He was very impressed by his Theory, which explains, that any Form on Earth is created by sound and also that all the planets in our solar system are tuned, following the exact frequency and proportions of the 7 tones in our Music Scale.

 

His goal now is trying to transform consciousness directly into matter. He imagines the planet sculptures as a frozen 3D Image of the Universe, microseconds after its own creation (Big Bang), driven by the force of sound. He imagines the materialization of the eternal sacred pattern, the so-called cosmic conciseness, into matter and form. “Emptiness is Form. Form is emptiness.

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Website: http://matthiascontzen.com/