Since the beginning of his artistic practice in the early 2000s, Hugo Arcier has been exploring computer-generated images and virtual worlds to interrogate their nature and our perception of them. His work exists at the intersection of technology, poetic observation, and reflection on reality. Each project functions as a lens, allowing the viewer to understand digital universes that are often little known, while highlighting their construction and specificities.<\/p>\n
Ghost City<\/em><\/a> (2016) marks a turning point in his artistic development. The work introduces the notion of surface as a subject of reflection. Through a digital cutting process, the surfaces of objects \u2013 mountains, buildings, rocks \u2013 become visible, revealing their hollow and illusory nature. This approach highlights the particularity of virtual worlds: everything is made of surfaces that create the illusion of volume, like a theater set whose artifice is revealed by a simple change of perspective. By making these surfaces visible, Arcier transforms the constituent elements of the digital world into the very material of perception, inviting a careful and critical reading of the virtual image.<\/p>\n This exploration of surfaces continues with De Rerum Natura<\/em><\/a> (2019), which applies the same principle to a vegetal universe. The work becomes a metaphor for the disappearance of ecosystems and the threats facing the environment. The title, borrowed from Lucretius\u2019 poem, emphasizes that what we perceive is often only an envelope behind which invisible processes unfold. The video creates a poetic and analytical space, where contemplation is combined with an ecological awareness.<\/p>\n The project Limbus<\/em><\/a> deepens this reflection by exploring spaces hidden beneath the levels of a video game. These limbos, ghost zones where nothing manifests according to the rules of the visible world, become contemplative landscapes and architectures of disappearance. The work invites the viewer to confront absence and to perceive spaces that exist without human presence, questioning the relationship between fullness and emptiness, between the visible and the invisible. The experience reveals the richness of the invisible and the capacity of digital worlds to generate unprecedented sensations.<\/p>\n Yuri\u2019s Metamorphosis<\/em> demonstrates Arcier\u2019s ongoing interest in the intersection of ecological phenomena and digital representation, blending conceptual rigor with immersive experience.<\/p>\n Throughout his practice, Arcier engages with fragility, transformation, and disappearance, whether in digital surfaces, vegetal ecosystems, unexplored virtual spaces, or evolving landscapes. These themes shape a body of work that combines conceptual rigor and poetry, using digital technologies to reveal invisible or overlooked phenomena and to encourage a careful, attentive gaze on the world.<\/p>\n Arcier\u2019s immersive projects, whether interactive or contemplative, demonstrate that technology is not merely a tool for visual production but a device capable of transforming perception. It allows for an extension of experiential time, a dilation of space, and the introduction of the viewer into environments in flux where the visible and invisible coexist. These setups create situations in which contemplation and reflection intertwine, inviting a renewed perception of both nature and virtual spaces.<\/p>\n The tension between presence and absence, between the visible and the invisible, is a guiding thread throughout his work. Whether it is the hollow surfaces of Ghost City<\/em>, the cut vegetation of De Rerum Natura<\/em>, the unexplored limbos of Limbus<\/em>, or the transforming landscapes of Yuri<\/em>, each project makes perceptible what usually escapes the eye. Absence and emptiness become sensitive materials, transforming the viewer\u2019s apprehension of the world.<\/p>\n His work also engages in an ongoing dialogue with philosophical and scientific thought. The notion of surface, the questioning of materiality and disappearance, and the attention to the transformation of ecosystems and virtual landscapes all contribute to experiences that are both poetic and analytical. The works invite reflection on the relationship between reality and virtuality, perception of the fragility of natural environments, and the way we inhabit digital and real spaces.<\/p>\n In summary, Hugo Arcier\u2019s work articulates four main axes: the deconstruction of computer-generated images and the materiality of digital surfaces, the poetic and ecological exploration of ecosystems, immersion in unexplored or contemplative spaces, and reflection on time, disappearance, and transformation. Each project creates unique conditions for observation, inviting the viewer to slow down, perceive, contemplate, and reflect on the surrounding world, whether natural or digital.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BIOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/p>\n Hugo Arcier is a French digital artist (actually he is an artist in a digital world) who uses 3D computer graphics in various ways: video installations, prints and sculptures.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Devoted first to\u00a0visual effects for feature films<\/strong>, he has worked on numerous projects with directors such as Roman Polanski<\/a>, Alain Resnais or Jean-Pierre Jeunet.<\/p>\n This profession has allowed him to gain\u00a0a deep understanding of digital tools – in particular 3D graphic images –<\/strong>\u00a0which is essential for the birth of his projects.<\/p>\n Since 2004 he develops plastic and reflective artworks <\/strong>that meticulously dissect the specificities of 3D computer graphics and virtual worlds, being part of a new form of art.<\/p>\n His artistic works have been featured in numerous festivals<\/strong> (Elektra, Videoformes, N\u00e9mo, etc.), in collective exhibitions in galeries and art venues<\/strong> (Le 104, New Museum, Palais de Tokyo, New Media Art Center of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, galerie Magda Danysz, galerie Plateforme, etc.) and contemporary art fairs (Variation, Slick).<\/p>\n His works has been shown in two monographic exhibitions<\/strong> in France: He was named “Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres<\/strong>” in 2016 by the French minister of Culture Audrey Azoulay.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n INTERVIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n Interview for Videoformes 2026<\/a> Les Inrocks.<\/strong> Radio Nova<\/strong> OCI magazine<\/strong> RESMUSICA<\/strong> ARTSHEBDOMEDIAS<\/strong> France Info<\/strong> T\u00e9l\u00e9rama<\/strong>
\n“Nostalgie du r\u00e9el” in 2013 at Le Cube, and “Fant\u00f4mes num\u00e9riques” in 2016 at Lux Valence.<\/p>\n
\nHe is the founder and creative director of N\u00b0130 Creative Studio<\/a>
\nHe is active member of the artist-run space Plateforme Paris<\/a>.
\nCopyright managed by ADAGP<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nVRAL Milan Machinima Festival<\/a>
\nOp\u00e9ra de Paris, about Clinamen<\/a>
\nTravelogue (exhibition)<\/a>
\nGame \/ Video Art. A survey (exhibition and book)<\/a>
\n“Philosophie – La culture” (documentary) FRENCH<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPRESS REVIEW<\/strong>
\nFisheye Immersive<\/strong>
\nSelected to open the event, Hugo Arcier and Annabelle Playe present Ars Natura, an audiovisual performance (first unveiled at L.E.V. Gij\u00f3n) where science fiction becomes both intimate and cosmic. Far from serving as a simple pastoral backdrop, nature emerges as a landscape sculpted by human hands\u2014at once wild and unreal. Completely immersed, the audience is left wondering whether they are still on Earth or already inside a post-Anthropocene simulation. A remarkable opening performance.<\/em>
\nRead the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“Combining live music, 3D visuals, lighting design and smoke, this new creation explores our relationship with the living world with remarkable originality and insight.”<\/em>
\nRead the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nArs Natura at the Montpellier Opera: a science fiction-inspired performance exploring our relationship with nature<\/strong>
\n“What are the consequences of humanity’s impact on our planet and on the way we perceive nature?” This is one of the central questions raised by Ars Natura<\/strong>.<\/em>
\nRead the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“Distortion and noise generated by their modular synthesizers struck with force, at times overwhelming (…) immersive visuals in which nature gradually reclaims its place. Then, suddenly, ambient passages emerge (…) before digital bursts restore the tension, leading back into noise-driven textures and increasingly epic atmospheres. A work designed to provoke a response\u2014and judging by the thunderous, long-lasting applause, it achieved exactly that.”<\/em>
\nRead the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“The evening opens explosively with Ars Natura<\/strong> (…): the performance is powerful, balancing blasts and ruptures with moments of smoothing and distortion within a high-voltage sonic flow that nevertheless allows ample space to breathe, in dialogue with Hugo Arcier’s video. Stunning 3D imagery\u2014whether real or fabricated\u2014reveals a dense, untamed nature (…) that is equally poetic. Eye and ear remain constantly engaged thanks to the highly successful interplay between sound and image.”<\/em>
\nRead the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nInLAND<\/strong> by Hugo Arcier, Annabelle Playe and Marc Siffert is a twilight journey beginning deep within the earth, through the entanglement of its roots and toward its incandescent core, accompanied by a noise score pierced with breathtaking lyrical passages. Its visual and sonic language, pushed to the extreme, left us speechless when it premiered at the Vid\u00e9oformes Festival. We can’t wait to experience it again!<\/em>
\nRead the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“Clinamen” by Hugo Arcier: when digital art shakes up the Paris Opera’s 3rd Stage.<\/strong>
\nOne could describe it as a pointillist\u2014or even atomic\u2014choreography. Inspired by motion capture technology, the film reveals only the very essence of movement performed by three dancers: Anna Chirescu, Simon Feltz and Pierre Guilbault. Throughout the spaces of the Palais Garnier\u2014the stage, the grand foyer and the monumental staircase\u2014they appear as constellations of luminous points. Though their bodies remain invisible, they trace a ballet of countless microscopic spheres.
\nThrough constantly shifting perspectives, the Palais Garnier itself joins this distilled choreography. Its walls become transparent. The viewer floats above Chagall’s famous ceiling before drifting into the Parisian sky. Beneath their feet, the material of the monument, shattered into millions of atoms, comes alive\u2014and begins to cry out. The result is both magical and faintly unsettling.<\/em>
\nRead the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nA ballet of white spheres emerges within a post-apocalyptic Palais Garnier. Planets drift apart and converge, gradually revealing a trio of abstract silhouettes. Clinamen, created by visual artist Hugo Arcier in collaboration with choreographer Christine Bastin for the Paris National Opera’s 3rd Stage, is a mesmerizing video work. Immersed in various spaces of the opera house, specially scanned in 3D for the occasion, this cosmic journey\u2014created with three performers whose movements were captured using motion capture technology\u2014unfolds as a futuristic fiction.<\/em>
\nRead the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n
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