Hector Olguin
1970, Santiago de Chili
Born in Santiago de Chile in 1970, Hector Ariel Olguin is a Franco-Chilean photographer and visual artist. He lives and works in Paris. In the 90s, he embarked on his first project, traveling throughout Latin America from south to north on a journey of initiation in which photography became his principal means of expression. In the early 2000s, he settled in Paris, devoting himself mainly to press photography.
It wasn’t until 2006, when he accompanied a choreographer on a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, that he realized all the possibilities offered by the photographic medium. This marked the beginning of his research into the aesthetics of the body in movement. In 2010 in Portugal, his first artist residency as an author enabled him to develop his narrative approach and visual vocabulary. He imagined and built costumes, props and objects to stage his characters. Since then, he has continued to explore new ways of enriching his practice, willingly taking side steps into other techniques, drawing, textile design and jewelry, depending on the stories he wishes to tell.
SELECTED ARTWORKS
1350°C
Set of nine brooches and their box, 2017.
Light oak wood, black velvet, felt, porcelain, metal.
A limited edition of three exclusive sets.
Conceived as a complete art object, 1350°C combines different techniques and consists in a case containing nine oval photographs, printed on porcelain. This project owes its name to the temperature at which these porcelains are fired: 1350 degrees Celsius.
Here, the desire does not only materializes in a photographic object but in contemporary jewelry pieces. Adopting the traditional shape of the cameos, these oversized oval photographs are free of any contour. In order to liberate the pattern, the steel strapping has been replaced by pink gold claws. A discrete fibula invites us to wear this picture as a jewel.
1350°C stems from the complicity of Franco- Chilean photographer Hector Olguin and French designer, Cynthia Ayral, in a common reflexion on eroticism. This project combines Japanese and European references : the tradition of cameos and the Shunga (erotic Japanese prints dating from the Edo era, 17th -19th century). This artwork raises questions about the elusive nature of eroticism, which is thought as an intellectual path : the one which leads to desire. The photographer, Hector Olguin, draws his inspiration from Shunga and particularly from the way pop artists have re-interpreted it in Japan since 1945.
He recognizes himself in the exuberance of the represented scenes and in the craziness of the colours.
Cynthia Ayral has imagined the box containing the photographs as a sensitive journey leading to the pictures. As a reference to Japanese culture, this box shows a willingness to ritualise the access to this precious collection of pictures, thanks to sensitive devices such as a magnetic cover, the felt mask, the wild silk pads and a specific backlight system. This box highlights this “strength of life”, symbolized by the desire while preserving its secret.
Cardin de Goncourt
The illustrated story of a year in 24 drawings
Original drawings embroidered by Alexandra Gripon
Paris | 2021- 2022
