« My need for new representations has been strongly influenced by the history of French art as well as fragments of my Congolese heritage. I conduct research using archives, ranging from family photographs to documents on Black history, to help me create my own narratives using painting and tapestry. As a trans person, I am also greatly inspired by the different forms of femininity and my own experience with gender and intersectional identities. »
Born in Namibia in 1998 to a French mother and Congolese father, Maty Biayenda grew up in Angoulême (France). Passionate about drawing, she attended live drawing sessions at the École d’Art du Grand Angoulême from 2011 to 2016. After completing a literary baccalaureate and a year of art preparation at the Ateliers de Sèvres, she graduated in textile and material design from ENSAD Paris. In her work, Maty draws inspiration from her dual heritage, exploring multiple identities and existence based on her experiences growing up in France. She examines the influences and erasures of Africa in European culture and sociology, using mixed techniques: from painting and illustration to photography and textiles.
« My need for new representations has been strongly influenced by the history of French art as well as fragments of my Congolese heritage. I conduct research using archives, ranging from family photographs to documents on Black history, to help me create my own narratives using painting and tapestry. As a trans person, I am also greatly inspired by the different forms of femininity and my own experience with gender and intersectional identities. »
Maty uses textile and figurative languages through reinterpreted and revisited historical patterns like ‘Toile de Jouy’ or ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’ tapestry, and plays of transparency that reveal and conceal silhouettes, as well as through various mediums such as painting. She aimed to create a space where a kind of personal mythology unfolds. In this space, icons and unknowns meet and confront my own life experiences. It is a journey where fiction and reality, collective and individual imagination blend, across different temporalities and mediums.