True Colors | Mathieu Asselin

In 2014, a secret software in selected models of Volkswagen cars was uncovered that manipulated air pollution tests in vehicles from select automakers; the software detected when the standardized emissions test was being conducted and modified the engine to emit less during the test. However, under real-world driving conditions, the vehicles emitted significantly more pollutants. This discovery led to the biggest industrial scandal of the postwar period and shook the auto industry to its core. The Dieselgate scandal

Based on Dieselgate, True Colors, the latest work by Mathieu Asselin, reflects on the automotive industry's violent relationship with the landscape. It examines its deceptive narrative of ecology as a means to survive the urgent socioeconomic and environmental changes facing humanity today, where the rapidly expiring individualistic concept of mobility is being challenged as never before in the history of the industry.

Through the use of the industry's visual marketing tools, such as photography, colors, archival materials, and others, True Colors seeks to challenge the industry's environmental narrative and its contradictions, corporate and environmental scandals and inaction, and its unsustainable vision for the future of human mobility.

Each set is a unique diptych, meaning only one color is available for sale. The Artists Proof's are for exhibition purposes only. Please do not hesitate to contact us to receive more information.

Winner of the Meijburg Art Commission Prize 2023

Shortlisted for the EXPOSED Grant for Contemporary Photography 2023