// FABRICE HYBER
// GOLD / CHARCOAL / OIL PAINT / MOUNTED PAPER
// W. 200 x H. 150 CM

// UNIQUE PIECE

"Vivant" is a fitting adjective for Fabrice Hyber's work, such is the energy of life that transcends his canvases, painted "with the tips of his fingers", as the exhibition "La Vallée", organized by the Fondation Cartier in Paris this year, poetically put it.

Fabrice Hyber's artistic approach, his research and his desire to transmit are already omnipresent in 2010 in the painting "Equilibre". Beneath the colorful word - which gives this work its name - the capital letter G suggests that gravity, lines of force and escape intrigue the artist.

He mentions a knot that raises questions: how can we unravel the thread, if not through exaltation, overcoming binary choices, finding the middle way? Every step counts. And the tracings recount and transmit his hypotheses through words and drawings. The painting evokes a third solution, an in-between, a level bubble, and shows the search for a center: the center of the work, of the balance, of ourselves?

The canvas invites us to see beyond the simple yes or no, to reverse the principle of complementarity and opposition, and above all "to transform the idea of measurement into balance", explains Fabrice Hyber. Since it's not so much the weight as the horizontal axis that interests him, he adds a third plate to an object that normally oscillates between two.

So the balance becomes triple, like a helix, showing evolutionary dynamics, transformation and precipitating the search for stability. This additional arm underlines the need to push the limits of duality. From two to three, the dialectic principle begins. A different kind of movement emerges, like a spiral, constantly urging us to reinvent a new state, new possibilities: "more choice", writes the painter.

The black of the charcoal and the extremely diluted colors of the oil paint complement and respond to each other. As for the gold leaf on the triangles, while it imbues the canvas with an almost cosmic solar aura, it is also worth its weight in gold for its nod to the powerful value of this rare and precious metal. Not forgetting the reference to alchemy, which seeks to transmute dark lead into luminous gold, thanks to the energy of fusion.

This metaphorical canvas is enriched by a visible path. It bears witness to the process required to conceive and give birth to P.O.F. n°147, Triple Balance, in aluminum and steel (purchased by the Centre Pompidou in 2013). A new version of this object will see the light of day in 2022: produced in black steel and raw brass by Galerie MICA, it is bound to shine.

Text by Nathalie Dresse

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