6 Questions to Matthias Esch

German artist, living and working in Glasgow and Berlin.

What is your art about?

I am interested in language as a system which we use and which surrounds us. Words structure our thoughts and therefore our perception. Nevertheless there ist a immanent gap between the image and the word, between us and our surrounding.

I create archaic paintings, signifier for this condition. These archaic, symbolic images preserve and highlight the interval between image and language. Others are more connected to system structures, flirting with power, or create signs we have to refill.

What is fertiliser for your work?

Anger, post depression, love and beauty.

Besides I love patterns and rhythm, like the floors in churches in Rome, or greek door design.

Who or what has recently impressed you?

Dont know.

Have a beer with an artist of your choice? Whom?

Caravaggio and Cy Twombly.

Both are dead of course, so maybe with the writer Karl Ove Knausgard. Or with my friends.

What would you do with five euro found in the streets?

Maybe make myself a present, a cup of coffee, a drink or a cheap book.

What can managers learn from artists? 

Money is not that important.