“For me, that is precisely what art is: the future”
As well as being an artist, Fabrice Hyber (born 1961, Luçon, Vendée, France) is also a farmer, professor, educator, mathematician, researcher and traveller. The central themes he explores, particularly in his paintings, relate to nature, agriculture, animals and life. In his works, these themes are explained and depicted through the cycles of which they are composed: How does life on Earth work? How can nature bring living beings into being? Or, to put it more concretely: how do seeds grow after they have been planted in the ground? How does a cow’s digestion work?
To describe all this, Hyber uses not only drawings, lettering, diagrams and figures in his works, but also geometric shapes and mathematical formulas, which he relates to the figures depicted. In fact, Hyber studied mathematics before embarking on his artistic career and only turned to art later. During his studies, he realised something very important that now forms the basis of his work: when one draws on different disciplines to discuss a topic, it is viewed from various perspectives. This gives rise to a multitude of meanings that deepen his understanding whilst leaving room for new interpretations.
TRANSCRIPT: I’ve actually always seen mathematics as a language – a language through which I try to understand the world in a different way from poetry or the sciences; simply differently. For me, mathematics and physics go hand in hand; it’s not just about mathematics in itself. They also enable me to understand how, through numbers or waves or other ways of looking at nature, one can perceive the living – that which moves, which is constantly expanding and in a state of perpetual expansion. And that is precisely what eventually made me an artist, because I also found a way, through art, to discover other languages. Actually, maths and art are different languages. And when you develop a language, you also develop a certain way of seeing the world – you suggest to others a way of looking at the world. And that’s exactly it … that’s the connection between the two.
When Hyber finally immersed himself in the art world, he developed a visual language all of his own, which he has consistently pursued for years. His canvases become veritable blackboards through which he explains, demonstrates and illustrates how life, nature and animals function. For him, it is art in particular, with its countless possibilities, that allows people to consciously experience the present without forgetting the myriad connections to everything around them.
TRANSCRIPT: For me, art is an opportunity; it is the future. Art is the only means by which one can constantly adapt anew. Unlike religions, which create dogmas that are very difficult to develop further, art has long demonstrated that it ceaselessly produces new and different solutions, in which dogmas are repeatedly called into question. This has become particularly evident in modern art, but also through individual figures. And for me, it would be important for artists’ spaces – spaces created by them – to be places one enters as if into a new world, where new ways of seeing the world are proposed. And ultimately, that means constantly questioning oneself, remaining active and being positively creative. For me, that is precisely what art is: the future.
The exhibition project at the Kunstmuseum Thun was developed in close collaboration with the artist and the Kunstmuseum Thurgau, which is simultaneously showcasing another facet of Hyber’s artistic practice. In the galleries of the Thurgau museum, alongside a number of canvases, various costumes are on display which visitors can try on and wear.
For the artist, these garments represent his alter egos. Transformation – ‘becoming something else’ – is of great significance to Hyber. Just as everything in nature undergoes transformation, so too can human beings transform themselves with the aid of ‘tools’ such as costumes, make-up and masks, and become something else. That is why the artist has developed a series of costumes which, once worn, allow him to alter his essence and become whatever he wishes to be.
If he could actually transform himself into a real animal, he would like to be a kingfisher with magnificent, colourful plumage and the ability to fly far away. Or perhaps a fungal spore, carried around the world by the wind, settling somewhere and becoming a mutant.
TRANSCRIPT: If I were a bird, I’d be a kingfisher. Ah, the kingfisher – why? Because it’s a beautiful bird, all colourful and iridescent: blue when it keeps its wings closed, orange when it flies. And when it spreads its wings, it flies very fast just skimming the water’s surface to catch its food by diving into the water at lightning speed. I love this bird – it’s hard to spot and incredibly beautiful when it does appear … So that would be one bird. But otherwise, I’d also like to be a fungal spore, hurled high into the sky by a tornado, out into space, where it stays for thousands of years and then eventually falls back down to transform into something else – something mutated.
This article was published as part of the exhibition Fabrice Hyber. L’Artiste Agriculteur.