ART ISLANDS:Hydra-Nicolas Tourte

Nicolas Tourte’s work explores man’s place in the universe with a light-hearted and derisive touch. It principally deals with cycles, repetition and the notion of the virtual. The artist ‘likes to point out, to reveal detail which was previously passed over, to confer it with a new status’, to give it a new importance.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Hyam Archive

ΗΥam is an Artistic Association for the realization of an artistic purpose through different events in Paris and in Hydra. More specifically, every two years a prize award, with artists from a different Mediterranean country takes place in Paris in collaboration with the Foundation Jean – Luc Lagardère. In alternation with its two-year prize, HYam Association decided to give a carte blanche to a young French artist, who will create a site-specific work  for a public space in Hydra Island. The first carte blanche was given to Nicolas Tourte, who installed “Témoin” (2019) on the Makariou Square. The title of the installation evokes a multitude of interpretations, is here related to illusory rapports that the artist likes to concoct. Nicolas Tourte, creates seemingly simple images, seeking through these to question notions of time and movement, codes and landmarks. In his practice the objects of the everyday life play a driving role. Every video installation is thought according to the place where it is presented to the public. It adapts itself to the architectural constraints and offers a new perception of the space, that it is crowned, public or deprived. The artist works on an easily transportable, moldable and flexible object according to the places where he exposes them. Besides the spatial and visual effects, we note the effort produced by the artist for the creation of the titles of each work, real puns and plays on words which guide us in our reading of the images and the objects. The titles are part of the creative process

Info: Makariou Square, Hydra Island, Duration 14/7-14/9/19, https://hyam.fr