'''Fabrice Hybert''' (b. 1961 in Lucon) is a French Artist. The ensemble of Fabrice Hybers’ work is conceived in the form of a gigantic rhizome that develops on a principal of echoes. In proceeding by accumulations, hybridizations and mutations, the artist operates in constant movement between extremely different domains. Each piece is but an intermediary and evolving stage of this “work in progress” which spreads like a proliferation of the thought, establishing links and exchanges that later give way to yet other articulations. “Mental prosthesis which extends the thought by the body” or: “company that networks individuals, ideas and know-how,” his work answers to many definitions. Fabrice Hyber’s first exhibit was in Nantes in 1986 under the title: ”Mutation.” In 1989, born from a public request (the town of Bessines) he creates “l’homme de bessines”, little green men, 86cm high, ordinary people who topple over into the extraterrestrial strangeness. Installed on the banks of the brooks in the community, these “men from Bessines” act as a fountain because they spit water out of all their body orifices that inform the brain. Since 1989, these “men from Bessines” have been little by little invading towns in France as well as abroad. In 1991, the artist created “the biggest soap in the world” (Pof N° 71), inscribed in the Guiness book of records, weighing 22 tons, molded into a truck bin and presented at the supermarket chains “LeClerc” around the country, is a sort of self-portrait of the artist: indiscernible, unclassifiable, and constantly slipping out of ones hands. The same year, he presents his first POF, "Touch carpet – POF n°1". With the POF’s (Prototypes of Functioning Objects), like the square ball – pof N° 65 or Oto, the double-edged car – pof n° 87, or even the swing set – pof n° 03, Fabrice Hyber shifts the original functions of many familiar objects borrowed from our daily lives. In transforming and enhancing their utility, he modifies the conscience and use we have for these objects, in which the new forms induce and generate new behaviors. The POFs, issued from drawings or paintings rarely exhibited, are regularly “tested” by the public during exhibits such as “Testoo”, “At your own risk” etc. Hyber has also put these POFs on stage with his Cabaret POFs. In 1994, he creates his firm UR (Unlimited Responsibility), destined to favor the production and exchange of projects between artists and companies. His objective: to enhance the work of producers, to crossover and come closer to different terrains and foremost to react and do. After having transformed the modern art museum in Paris into a Hybermarket in 1995 he followed-up the next year by installing a professional beauty salon at the Georges Pompidou Center during the feminine/masculine exhibition. In 1997 he was chosen to represent France at the 47th Biannual Festival of Venice. He left with the “Lion d’Or,” the highest distinction, after having transformed the French Pavilion into a recording studio and television broadcasting set (Eau d’or, eau dort, odor) With the passage into the year 2000, he transformed one of the most solemn monuments in Paris, The Arc of Triumph, into an anchorage point for an Internet portal: inconnu.net (unknown.net). The title of the work makes reference not only to the building that houses it but also to a way of thinking of the artist for whom the world can only be apprehended as a question mark. In 2001, Fabrice Hyber imagined a “C’hyber rally, ” in Tokyo, the first of several, the second being in Vassivière in the Limousin region. In 2002, some three hundred Parisians took a turn at battling the cobblestones of the capital for the Paris c’hyber rally, organized with the Paris Modern Art Museum. Impassioned by the concepts of rhizome and proliferation, the artist thinks of the c’hyber rally as a work of art: a network of active and durable exchanges between works of art, the environment and the public. By disseminating his POFs in the city, Hyber shares his vision with his “competitors” and offers them the possibility to immerse themselves, in a fun and sensitive way, into his universe. 2003 and 2004 are two years centered around the “the artery – the garden of drawings,” a durable work imagined and created by Hyber, by the request of the Sidaction association who wanted to commemorate the 20 years of the AIDS pandemic. By choosing to give these years of struggle a generous visibility, Fabrice Hyber thought of the “Artery” as an anti-monument. An open ground, accessible to everyone, a gigantic puzzle of 1001m2 made of some 10,000 ceramic squares, which hold as many original drawings by the artist, painted directly onto the pieces of ceramic. This ground, stretched out like a skin in the heart of the Parc de la Villette in Paris, takes the form of an untied red ribbon, open onto the future. «Nord-Sud » is the title of the exhibition proposed by the artist in 2005 to the FRAC Pays de la Loire (Regional Funds of Contemporary Art of the Loire region). Witnessing his latest thoughts about the landscaping of his childhood’s valley, the exhibition reflects a process started in 1993. After having planted more than 70 000 trees of various species in the valley, Hyber keeps going in the company of other artists invited to work around the house’s functions. When inviting these artists and architects to consider these problematics with him, Hyber carries on his share-out commitment towards the public as well as other creators. The same year, for La Briqueterie (brickyard) of Ciry-le-Noble, he stimulates the capacity of invention of two terra-cotta professionals and braves the manufacturing principles by building a house in earth of 2.50 meters high and 2 meters by its side, built and baked in one sole element, like one sole brick. Still in 2005, Fabrice Hyber tackles an adventure head-on with the choreograph Angelin Preljocaj. On his request, Hyber takes part in the creation of the ballet dancing “The 4 Seasons…”, with Antonio Vivaldi’s music, presented during the opening of the Festival Montpellier Danse on last July 1st. Providing the “chaosgraphy”, the sets and the costumes of the ballet, the artist diverts Preljocaj and disrupts his choreography with the intrusion on the scene of many POFs, which act just as many interferences and which modify his initial manner of considering the movement. At the same time, an exhibition held at the Villa Arson (Nice) entitled “Météo” (weather forecast), presents about thirty preparatory paintings of “The 4 Seasons…”, a few installations, several POFs accompanied with their video, as well as different costumes and sets realized by the artist for the ballet. Fabrice Hyber is enhancing his role as a director, entrepreneur and mediator at the same time. Always on several projects simultaneously, he’s multiplying his works and rhizomes, thus inspiring himself on the manner in which cellular systems in the number of live organisms develop and in the irrigation, nourishment flow systems and their excesses…. ===External links=== *Hyber's website *Hyber's gallery *biography {{Euro-artist-stub}} Fr:Fabrice_Hybert