HUGO DEVERCHÈRE

This project is not only a part of the PHOTOFAIRS’s events of Weekend of Photography, but also a ‘sneak-peek’ for the artist’s 2021 solo exhibition with the gallery.

The Far Side

The Far Side is a series of four digital infrared images printed in the form of cyanotypes.

Using Near-Infrared imagery, a capture process developed and used by astronomers in their cosmic observations, the project seeks a connection between the far side of the moon, recently explored by Chinese space-rover Chang’e 4, and the urban landscape of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

By depicting these landscapes through the same capture process, the combination of images creates a new panorama that brings into resonance the near and the distant—our immediate environment and the remote areas of space, the visible and the invisible—at the crossroads of the known and the unknown.

The use of these two particular techniques of capture and representation (Near-Infrared imagery and cyanotype, one sending us back to the beginnings of photography, to the origins of modern imagery, and the other, a cutting edge process used for spatial observation) challenges the way in which science, technology and their new modes of representation shape our eyes, our knowledge, our consciousness and the perception of our close and distant environment.

By observing and connecting these remote and familiar territories as they cannot appear to us, The Far Side creates the possibility of rediscovering them.

Cosmorama

Cosmorama observes the world as it does not appear. Conceived like a journey from our close environment to the distant and unknown horizons of the cosmos, it reveals an imperceptible stratum of the light spectrum. The film questions our common perceptions and representations, it reintroduces notions such as the unknown, the uncertainty and oddity in our relationship with the world.

Shot in the surroundings of an observatory (in a lava desert where the NASA tested Martian rovers) and in a primitive forest which gives us an overview of the state of the world 50M years ago, the film uses a near-infrared imagery process with which astronomers usually observe the deep reaches of the universe. It also makes audible the light pulsations emitted by distant stars and galaxies by transposing radio-telescopes data into sound.

By disrupting our usual spatiotemporal markers, Cosmorama allows the emergence of a sensitive and collective experience of pure perception.

About the Artist

Born in 1988 in Lyon, France, Hugo Deverchère graduated from ENSAD Paris (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) and from Le Fresnoy - National studio for contemporary arts. His work has recently been exhibited and screened in Palais de Tokyo (Paris FR), FRAC Grand Large (Dunkirk), Pearl Art Museum (Shanghai), the International Film Festival Rotterdam, CPH:DOX (Copenhagen), Ars Electronica (Linz) and the Festival du nouveau cinéma (Montreal).

Driven by an almost scientific approach, Hugo Deverchere’s work attempts to set up a body of experiences which are just as many ways to question and evaluate our relationship with the world. Whether based on stories, collected data, captured or simply found images, his research often involves processes such as modelisation, conversion, and transposition.

The resulting forms act as a prism between reality and its representations, revealing the interval which separates our perception of the world and the knowledge and awareness we have of it. By questioning the role of imagination and collective memory in our approach to reality, the artist wishes to highlight phenomena and events which by their very nature are intangible and therefore remain subject to doubt and uncertainty.