Mathieu Zurstrassen

Legibility Without Access

Mathieu — 2026-04-07T12:39:25Z

Legibility Without Access is an installation that stages a chain of translations across time, media, and modes of perception. The work draws from Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires, a literary project that sought to render the unknown legible through science, narrative, and speculation. In this installation, those same texts are reread by an artificial intelligence and reduced to affective responses rather than summaries or interpretations.
Legibility Without Access is an installation (…)

- WORKS / _2026

Machine with hamster

Mathieu — 2025-06-24T20:57:03Z

Machine with Hamster is a kinetic sculpture that harnesses the motion of a live hamster spinning a wheel to power a mechanized sex device. At first, the piece disarms with humor, but then quickly slides into discomfort. This absurd juxtaposition serves as both a visual punchline and a philosophical provocation. This work engages viewers by short-circuiting their expectations and forcing an emotional double-take. It provokes laughter, then eventually asks : Why the laughter ?
The absurdity (…)

- WORKS / _2022

Sound portals

Mathieu — 2025-06-24T14:30:57Z

The work finds its conceptual anchor in the air ducts of old buildings, those functional yet mysterious structures that transmit muffled voices, fragmented echoes of lives lived beyond the walls. These sounds, often decontextualized and stripped of their visual source act as a cerebral catalyst, sparking the imagination to piece together narratives from mere auditory fragments.
"Sound Portal" is a meditation on the unseen, the unheard, and the barely perceptible, a tribute to the (…)

- WORKS / _2023

Sisyphus

Mathieu — 2025-06-24T12:02:26Z

The title Sisyphus evokes the Greek mythological figure condemned to an eternal, presumably futile task of rolling a boulder uphill, only for it to roll back down.
In Sisyphus, the myth is inverted. The glowing circular form, standing in for the eternal boulder, is not at the base of the slope but suspended at its apex, delicately poised atop the glowing blue incline. Drawing from the Greek tale of a man condemned to repeat a futile labor for eternity, this work dares to imagine : What if (…)

- WORKS / _2024

Impāctus

Mathieu — 2025-06-24T09:48:19Z

"Impāctus" reinterprets the classical Memento Mori through the prism of voyeurism, digital mediation and brutality. The device showcases the remains of a mosquito—smashed on a stucco wall and endlessly revolving under a microscope.
"Impāctus" reinterprets the classical Memento Mori through the prism of voyeurism, digital mediation and brutality. The device showcases the remains of a mosquito—smashed on a stucco wall and endlessly revolving under a microscope. Unlike traditional symbols (…)

- WORKS / _2025

The Guardian

Mathieu — 2024-12-04T09:48:04Z

"Is this chair neglecting its duty in slumber, or does its rest embody a quiet form of vigilance, standing guard through stillness ?"
"The Guardian" presents itself as an ordinary rusted chair, a relic of time, weathered and unassuming. Yet, as one draws closer, it reveals its unexpected presence : the quiet, rhythmic sound of snoring emanates from its structure. The juxtaposition between the lifeless object and the human sound evokes a surreal narrative, where the chair transcends its (…)

- WORKS / _2024

Éloge de rien

Mathieu — 2024-11-04T11:12:23Z

Broadcast at the limit of the audible of L'Éloge de rien, dedicated to nobody, with an
afterword, a work published in 1730 attributed to Louis Coquelet known for his
burlesque approach to literature.
CONTEXT :
Initially published in 1730, in the middle of the Age of Enlightenment, the work is part of
the tradition of parodic eulogies of Greek Antiquity – Virgil wrote the eulogy
of the Gnat, Ovid that of the Flea, Synesius of Cyrene that of baldness,
Louis Coquelet, an identified (…)

- WORKS / _2024

I Love You ... Me Neither

Mathieu — 2023-11-07T21:02:42Z

Visual and sound installation featuring a 35mm film and audio.
"I Love You ... Me Neither " is a visual and sound installation featuring a 35mm film and audio.
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- WORKS / _2023

Rocky Lobster

Mathieu — 2023-11-07T21:00:59Z

Rocky Lobster picks and reads kinky toys from Aliexpress reviews
Rocky Lobster is an interactive sound installation.
A hacked 2001 Rocky Lobster is completely rewired, he formerly picked some kinky adult toys reviews from random Aliexpress items and reads them to you randomly.

- WORKS / _2023

On the meaning of life

Mathieu — 2023-11-07T20:56:56Z

Sound installation
On the meaning of life is a sound installation featuring variable audible philosophical lectures on the subject of the meaning of life.
A mobile speaker translates indefinetely from one end to another along a 80cm rail, adding one number on a LED display each time it touches one end. Featuring audio content from : No Excuses / Existentialism and the Meaning of Life by Robert C. Solomon (September 14, 1942 – January 2, 2007) was a professor of continental philosophy (…)

- WORKS / _2023