Fabrice Hybert "Citoxe"

‘From 12 June through 16 August 1998, De Appel will be presenting the work of the French artist Fabrice Hybert under the title Citoxe. Fabrice Hybert is one of France's most important young artists. He has participated in major solo and group exhibitions such as Skulptur, Projekte Münster, de Kwangju Biennial in Korea, in the Watarium Museum, Japan and in the Jack Tilton Gallery, New York. In 1997 Hybert won the prestigious 'Golden Lion' for the best pavilion at the Venice Biennial. This is not the first time that Hybert's work has been shown in the Netherlands. In 1995 he displayed a collection of garden tools on the pavement in front of De Appel, thereby making his work part of the street trading scene (shift). In 1996, four of Hybert's Testoos were shown in De Vleeshal, Middelburg. Now Hybert returns to the Netherlands and to De Appel for a major solo presentation of mainly new work. Hybert builds on the avant-garde tradition, which propagates the abolition of autonomous art and the merging of art and life. His preoccupation is always with the idea, and not with the final product. As a viewer you constantly find yourself being throw off track. According to Hybert, the rules and principles of trade and economics can be applied to artistic production. In Hybert's oeuvre, works of art are difficult to distinguish from consumer goods. His department store chain, 'Hybertmarché', established in 1995, offers the most diverse assortment of goods for sale. The P.O.F.s (Prototype of a Functioning Object) are familiar objects that Hybert has transformed for another purpose and that may be extensively tested by the public. Eliane - herself a prototype of a tester - appears live and on a monitor and does a campy demonstration of the P.O.F.s that refers to teleshopping. New works are introduced under the motto 'this-product-is-an-indispensable-part-of-your-household'. The focus is on action and interaction, on the process of change. For Citoxe, his solo exhibition in De Appel, Fabrice Hybert has furnished his rooms thematically according to topics such as meteorology, teleshopping, telepathy and exoticism (citoxe is the reverse of exotic). Hybert and De Appel have produced a small brochure to inform the public the meaning of these ideas.’ (Press release De Appel) Catalogue: Fabrice Hybert. Citoxe, 1998. Text: Guy Tortosa and Laurent Duthion. Dutch & English. 16 pp., b.w. 14.8 x 21 cm. Soft cover. € 1,-.