Didier Hagège was born in 1961 in Paris. He started to work in Henry Goetz's workshop in the early '80s. In 1985, he left for Italy, where he won the Villa Medici Extra-Mural prize. Hagège was established in Pietrasanta for over 12 years. There, he painted and worked on engravings together with artists from the world over.
In 1990, he won the Miskenot sha-Ananim residence in Jerusalem. He rapidly understood that traveling was essential to his creativity and inspiration. He worked in Robert Stern's studio in New York and crisscrossed through West Africa and Morocco. In 1996, he returned to Paris. He left for Marseille when his son, Ilan, was born in 2000.
Didier Hagège's influences are made of different ambiances, multiculturalism, familiar smells, and new encounters. He blends a color-rich Mediterranean expression with the sanctification of the object as a spiritual reminder.
When we are standing in front of a painting, there is always the issue of the gesture and where it is coming from. It is this gesture that questions our eyes, touches our sensibility, and inspires our desire to look at it and discover it.
Didier Hagège's work is located between collage, painting, and engraving, using the three techniques in a very subtle superposition. The artist does not insinuate a given sense or context in his production.
Only the painted work shows itself to us and dazzles us, regardless of a subject or anything it might suggest to our perception of an "idea" or a "concept." Eventually, the question of origin intervenes, which is the reference or history. It comes up to evaluate the rightness of our sense of pleasure that could be mistaken through the appropriation of someone else's gesture by means of simple mimesis. Didier Hagège allows us to visualize a genuinely personal gesture, not borrowed from anyone, which nevertheless enters into a dialogue with other artists. He shares the same sparkle with these other artists, whose names are Pizzi Cannella, James Brown, Miquel Barcelo, José Maria Sicilia, and others.
Didier Hagège fostered his art through traveling since the 1980s: Italy, Africa, the Middle East, New York, Paris, and Marseille, where he successively installed his studio. Each period of his creation matches with the places where he produces, incorporating everyday objects. This book allows us to trace, through a selection of works, the twenty years of research and maturation of his art.
Face à la peinture, il y a toujours les questions du geste et de l'origine du rendu de ce geste qui sont posées à notre regard, notre sensibilité, notre enthousiasme à regarder ou découvrir. L'œuvre de Didier Hagège se situe entre collage, peinture et gravure, utilisant les trois techniques dans une superposition subtile, loin des modes et de l'effet bruyant du bavardage publicitaire, où l'œuvre est réduite à une démarche de marketing sociologique. Seule l'œuvre peinte se présente à nous et provoque notre éblouissement, indépendamment du sujet ou de tout ce qu'il suggère dans notre intellect cognitif en référence à une "idée" ou un "concept". Ensuite, la question de l'origine, c'est-à-dire de la référence ou de l'histoire, intervient pour évaluer la justesse de notre sentiment de plaisir qui pourrait être trompé par l'usurpation du geste d'un autre par simple mimétisme. Didier Hagège donne à voir un geste propre, non emprunté, mais qui dialogue avec d'autres artistes qui provoquent aussi cet éblouissement, à savoir Pizzi Canella, James Brown, Miquel Barcelo, José Maria Sicilia, etc.
C'est à partir des années 80 que Didier Hagège se nourrit de ses voyages : l'Italie, l'Afrique, le Moyen-Orient, New York, Paris, Marseille, et y installe successivement son atelier. À chaque période de sa création correspondent les lieux où il crée ses œuvres, en y intégrant les objets du quotidien. Ce livre permet de retracer, à travers une sélection d'œuvres, les vingt années de recherche et de maturation d'une œuvre.
pascal polar
Photo by EMA