Hugues Reip

Born 1964 in Cannes, France – Lives and works in Paris, France

Shadow theatre, comics and early cinema are among the fields in which Hugues Reip likes to venture in his reconsideration of the exhibition format. As an artist who focuses on makeshift artifice and illusions that are exposed as soon as they are seen, he has a penchant for science fiction and parallel universes. He knows how to find windows in space and time to get his hands on a scene from a Buster Keaton movie, wander around a Méliès location in search of adventure, introduce a toon while preserving its platitude, or growing mushrooms in a Burroughs novel to hatch a secret meaning. By mirror effect, his appeals and allusions to occasionally archaic forms of the avant-garde reveal that contemporary art, even in its most radical forms, also demands the suspension of disbelief. Over twenty years, Hugues Reip has emerged as an artist who likes to turn the tables, or push the envelope, in his own discreet, even secretive manner.

Taken from the Hugues Reip monograph (co-published by Villa Saint Clair and fonds de dotation agnès b.)

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