Matteo Birchbauer is a self-taught photographer from Graz, who studies "Philosophy, Political Science and Economics" as well as "Sociology" at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg.
It is precisely these scientific approaches that shape his artistic research, as he strives to visually implement their perspectives and thus make socio-political discussion points accessible in a different way. Accordingly, heterogeneous realities of life can be found as a subject in the photographs of Matteo Birchbauer, which he makes visible through a focus on the everyday situations of people from different countries as well as on their habitat. The aim is to enter these living worlds through the image, in order to be able to experience cultural identities, political circumstances as well as polar tensions between rich and poor. An essential aspect of his approach is that, although his works seem like photographic reportage, they are not taken from an objectively distanced position. Instead, the artist often spends a long time in these countries, sometimes working closely together with the inhabitants, such as his activities in a social centre in Tudora.
Apart from his solo exhibition "Hai, Давай" in Graz, Matteo Birchbauer has been involved in various group exhibitions in Styria.