Hugo Baranger

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CROATIA

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Artist statement

Born in 1992 in Niort, I grew up in the heart of the Green Venice, in the Marais Poitevin. Its colours, the winter mist and its landscapes are the basis of my iconography. I was diagnosed late with poor vision combined with a strong astigmatism and hyperopia, at the age of 5 years old. My eyes were formed above all by blur, imperceptibility and focus problems. I graduated from the Beaux- Arts d’Angoulême (France, 2016) where I co-founded the collective Nani$ôka Groupe. After graduation, I moved to Bordeaux (France) and joined the Espace 29, an exhibition space housing studios and about 15 artists.

The Nani$ôka Group allowed me to exhibit in China, in Shanghai (Museum of Modern Art, Bazaar Compatible Program) in 2017, in residency at the Oeil de Poisson in Quebec (Canada) in 2018 and at AKC Atack in Zagreb (Croatia) in 2019, besides various exhibitions in France. From this first residency in Zagreb in 2019, I kept very good memories, contacts and friendships, which gave me the desire to come back as an individual, outside the collective. In 2020, I participated in the FAKI festival online because of covid-19, then in “physical” in 2021. I came back to Zagreb in May and June 2022 for another residency at AKC Attack and then for the sound exhibition at the ZEZ Festival. I returned to Zagreb in September for a residency followed by an exhibition at Garaza Kamba, and have been living there ever since.

I compose dreamlike and sensitive spaces that offer intimate times of wandering and reflection. These spaces, which are given to see by painting and to hear by music, are made up of a common vocabulary (tone, harmony, resonance, vibration, composition). Through the blurring and play of perceptions (auditory and visual) I model textures and surfaces that become starting points for the imagination.

“In today’s world, which has lost its spirituality, what kind of rituals and music could safeguard experiences” (Zhao Tingyang, Tianxia, all under one sky) 

I try to answer this question empirically through different dissemination devices such as installation, performance, album. I try to bring the current digital instruments such as computers or smartphones to a sensitive and spiritual use. In this perspective, I design tools/instruments that allow me to approach music from a relational point of view: human-human, machine-human, machine-machine. In their conception, I incorporate a non-predictable dimension in order to recreate a “life”, a properly digital autonomy. I am inspired by language and languages and I try to create non-verbal ones, through the very texture of sound.

Visually, I consider painting as a current alternative to the construction of images and colours by the pixel. I compose with vibration, which abolishes the borders between forms. They open up to each other and resonate with each other. The blur and the vibration induce the movement, the focus, the work of the eye of the viewer. My paintings are born from a memory and/or a sensation, sometimes I use everyday objects that I have in front of me. I choose these objects because they have a particular, hidden meaning for me.

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