Matthias A. K. Zimmermann

• Name — Matthias A. K. Zimmermann • Birth Name — Matthias Alexander Kristian Zimmermann • Born — 6 May 1981 • Birthplace — Basel, Switzerland • Field — Writer, Painting, New media art, Video game art • Training — University of Fine art, University of education

Matthias A. K. Zimmermann was born in Basel and grew up in the canton of Aargau. He studied music/composition at the University of Arts Berne, fine art at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, game design and art education at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and didactics/pedagogy at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET). His artistic work has found a reception in international exhibitions as well as in scientific and essayistic texts. Zimmermann's artworks are in collections of various museums. His debut novel, CRYONIUM, has been published by Kulturverlag Kadmos (Kadmos Publisher).

Zimmermann’s fictional worlds emerge from the concepts underlying his modular image compositions. His narratives likewise follow a modular, building-block principle. Palindromes, numeric sequences, anagrams, and codes form the formal building blocks. Time travel and spatial configurations, as well as the themes of transience and infinity, are among the variable components of his narrative system. The book covers he designs incorporate motifs from his paintings, which in turn appear within the narrative. The writing process can take up to ten years, as Zimmermann constructs his fictional worlds with the intricate precision of a clockwork.

• KRYONIUM. Die Experimente der Erinnerung. Novel. First publication: Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin 2019. New edition: Edition Modellwelten / BoD, Hamburg 2025, ISBN 978-3-8192-8019-1 • INTOXIKATION. Chemie der Illusionen. Psychological thriller. (Authors: Matthias A. K. Zimmermann, Kristina Schippling). First publication: Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin 2024. New edition: Edition Modellwelten / BoD, Hamburg 2025, ISBN 978-3-8192-4779-8 • IMITATHYOS. Das unendliche Alphabet. Novel. Edition Modellwelten / BoD, Hamburg 2024, ISBN 978-3-8370-6776-7 • YOGAMINO. Im Zickzack der Zeit und Ruckzuck der Räume. Novel. Edition Modellwelten / BoD, Hamburg 2026, ISBN 978-3-6957-4228-8

Zimmermann's artistic works, which he refers to as "Model Worlds", contain a smorgasbord of visual languages borrowed from digital space, the vocabulary of different cultures, and the history of art, design, and media. Computer game elements, source codes, japanese gardens, Buddhist symbolism, and icon paintings from the Middle Ages can be found predominantly. The pictorial motifs show landscapes in varying degrees of abstraction. This ranges from photorealistic, clearly recognizable places to spatial entities. The pictorial motifs convey both cheerful and gloomy atmospheres that paraphrase utopian and dystopian scenarios. The staging of the pictorial space using things from different times and places illustrates the simultaneity of virtual distance resolution. The geometric frameworks of the pictorial contents result from the most Miscellaneous perspectives and spatial representations. Each picture is based on a system that is constructed like a construction kit or puzzle and illustrates the playful concept of modularity – the variable combination, transformation, and ever new composition. The "Model Worlds" are designed as paintings on canvas or digitally constructed on the computer and implemented as Diasec. Each painting is preceded by meticulous sketch studies that last for months or years. Zimmermann's creative process reflects the interface of the analog and digital. His painting technique adapts the aesthetics of computer images, whereas his digitally created pictures mostly refer to motifs of classical painting.

The art book Digital Modernity (Hirmer Publishers), published in 2018, discusses Zimmermann's work primarily under the aspect of artistic research. By combining elements of aesthetic mediation with those of the knowledge system, new epistemological spaces are opened up for the reception of art. The "Model Worlds" form a topology through space and time, research in the history of art, design and media, and point out technical connections. The series of pictures, The Space Machine, layers the picture content in six levels – energy, hardware, binary code, 3D graphics software, game world (electronic visual display), source codes – and illustrates the construction of digital worlds. Among other things, the source codes shown have the function of source references.

• Museum of Art Aarau, Switzerland: Selection 11, 2011 • Art Museum of Lucerne, Switzerland: Annual Exhibition, 2011 • Computer Games Museum Berlin, Germany: Model Worlds – Pictures by Matthias Zimmermann, 2013 • Computer Games Museum Berlin/Institution of Digital Culture, Germany: Supersample – Pixels at an Exhibition, 2015 • Museet for Religiøs Kunst, Denmark: Vokseværk, 2015 • St. Anne's Museum Quarter, Lübeck/Landeshaus Kiel, Germany: KunSt aktuell im LandesHaus, 2015 • Ludwig Museum of Art, Germany: Matthias Zimmermann – From Videogame towards the Apocalypse, 2016 • Ludwig Museum of Art, Germany: The Known and the Unknown, 2019 • Museum of Art Aarau, Switzerland: Selection 19, 2019

Artwork by Matthias A. K. Zimmermann are in the permanent collection of the following museums and cultural institutions • Technisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria • Odysseum – Science Center, Germany • Ludwig Museum of Art, Germany • Museum of Art Aarau, Switzerland • Buchheim Museum of Fantasy, Germany • Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block, USA • MoFA – Florida State University / Museum of Fine Arts, USA • St. Anne's Museum Quarter, Lübeck, Germany • Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt, Germany • Museum of Art Göppingen, Germany • Computer Museum Kiel, Germany • Computer Games Museum Berlin, Germany • Toy Museum, Germany • Museum of Contemporary Art – Collection Hurrle, Germany • Museet for Religiøs Kunst, Denmark • Department of Music, University of Innsbruck • Illustration — Museum of Art Aarau • Illustration — Computer Games Museum Berlin • Illustration — Computer Games Museum Berlin • Illustration — Art Museum of Lucerne

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