On 29 August 2026, MDR Sachsenspiegel aired a feature on the work My (s(h)elf) at Trans Art Val in Göhrenz, presented as part of the festival A Horse With No Name. Watch the TV feature here: https://www.mdr.de/video/mdr-videos/c/video-1639482.html
Editor: Sybille Muth
rans–Art–Val
August 30, 2026
3–10 PM
Installation, Performance
August 31 – October 26, 2026
In his largest installation to date—and his first situated in a natural environment—
MY S(h)ELF, Mathias takes up residence on the grounds of ↗ Trans–Art–Val in a large-scale shelving system, quite literally turning it into a temporary space for living and working. At the same time, it becomes a walk-in aesthetic space for reflection, where thoughts, images, and objects from his artistic research enter into a relationship with the surrounding natural environment.
What happens when scientific thinking in categories and systems of order encounters the order of cultivated nature? What happens to the urge and longing for systematic organization when the usually carefully protected archive of scientific and artistic artifacts is subjected to renewed examination?
At the same time, the installation connects the question of observation—for example, the perspective of primate researchers observing great apes—with the artist’s own situatedness in the storefront studio in Leipzig-Grünau that he has occupied for the past year.
How do artists and scientists relate to the realities of their lives, as well as to societal questions of participation and connectedness? How does moving through their own living environments and those of others affect their perspectives?
As part of the exhibition, a public round table on artistic research, organized by the ↗ Very Ape Institut and Emanuel Mathias, will take place on September 3. In the form of a fishbowl discussion, visitors are invited to listen to the conversation and, if they wish, take part themselves.
The event is part of the ↗ A Horse With No Name festival, an art route through rural Saxony.
17 July 2026 | 2:00–6:00 PM
18 July 2026 | 11:00 AM–4:00 PM
Alte Salzstraße 53, 04209 Leipzig-Grünau, Germany
On 17 and 18 July, Studio Baustein and Emanuel Mathias will present a series of artistic interventions in and around Mathias’s shop studio, located along one of Grünau’s busiest pedestrian thoroughfares. Together with visitors, neighbours, and local participants, the project will temporarily activate and reimagine the public space, inviting new ways of experiencing it.
The project is explicitly aimed at the people who use this place as a street, a route, and a space to spend time. At its core is the creation of temporary situations that foster encounters, participation, and cultural activation within the neighbourhood. The aim is to encourage active engagement with contemporary art, highlight the site’s unique atmosphere, and open up perspectives for future community-based projects in Grünau.
The project is generously supported by the City of Leipzig and is part of the Grünau Cultural Summer.
Photo: Emanuel Mathias, Untitled, from the series Fieldwork Grünau, 2026. © Emanuel Mathias / VG Bild-Kunst, Berlin, Bonn.
Opening on Thursday, September 25, 2025, 4:00 p.m.
Merseburg University of Applied Sciences
The exhibition This is Turbulence operates at the intersection of visual art and science communication and is based on a year-long process of artistic research. In collaboration with faculty and alumni from the Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences (INW), the project explored working and knowledge-production processes, as well as rituals and gestures within the scientific disciplines, while reflecting on the historical and spatial relationship between the university and its regional network. At its core, alongside history, were the discipline’s present-day self-conception, regional knowledge transfer, and the close connection to the chemical industry hub of Leuna. The exhibition presents contemporary photographs, installations, scientific and historical objects, as well as multimedia works.
Artistic direction, concept, and realization: Emanuel Mathias
Project management and public relations: Laura Bierau / Merseburg University of Applied Sciences
Exhibition design and graphic design: Camille Le Lous
Technical and structural support: Tobias Schillinger
Art historical expertise: Heidi Stecker / Office for Text Work and Art
Exhibition runs until August 31, 2027
Merseburg University of Applied Sciences
Main Building D, Foyer 3rd Floor (Hg/D/3)
Eberhard-Leibnitz-Straße 2
06217 Merseburg