Mathieu Cardin’s practice revolves around the notion of the simulacrum, operating as a contemporary form of the "Cargo Cult." Much like the islanders who built straw planes in the hope of seeing abundance return, the artist reproduces the codes and appearances of established systems, whether the art institution or commercial photography, to question their function and truth.
This approach stems from an invisible inaugural performance: his admission to a Master’s program based on a portfolio of appropriated images. Since then, his work has deployed this imposture within physical space. He conceives his installations as decoys or theater sets: structures that, beneath a veneer of cleanliness and formal rigor, conceal a precarious materiality and a logic of deconstruction.
Constantly navigating between the real and the fake, the original and the copy, Cardin attempts to reveal the absurdity of our relationship with images and objects. The work does not seek to deceive the viewer, but rather to invite them behind the scenes, to the very place where the illusion is manufactured.
