Hubert Crabières
24.05.09-18, is the last period of residence during which this set of images has been realized in collaboration with the students of the schools of art and design of Université Côte d’Azur, among which are the National Higher Pôle de danse Rosella Hightower, Piste d’Azur, Besign, Villa Arson, ESRA and the Conservatoire de Nice. This photographic project brings together temporary installations and performances, a set of “publicless shows” staged in these different educational spaces and artistic practices. These images explore the intimacy and spectacular, a collective quest for the “beautiful”, the strangeness of becoming images.
A first series with the Piste d’Azur circus school, staged the particular environment of a capital. The show material becomes the subject of the images as well as the artists who manipulate them.
A picture, photographed at the Théâtre du Château de Valrose, transforms a group of students dressed by Josiane Martinho with the archives of the costumes of the Nice Opera, in a theatre of paper puppets. These photographic figures, printed at scale 1 and suspended, are worn, supported and floated in the space of this theatre which is at the heart of the life of the university.
A final series, in collaboration with the students of the Higher National Dance Pole Rosella Hightower, staged a group of dancers and their doubles. These dolls with their effigy are dressed again by Josiane Martinho with the archives of the school costumes. This set of photographs is an experiment around a dance with linings, choreographic interactions with identities transformed into manipulable images.
Partners: Université Côte d’Azur through its direction of culture and with the support of the UNCCP, the member schools of the Collège des écoles d’arts et de design d’Université Côte d’Azur, Opéra de Nice.
Acknowledgements: Sylvain Lizon, Julien Gaertner, Sybille Marchetto, Lucas Erhart, Julie Davy, Yvon Guelly, all teams from participating campuses and schools and students, Michel Sambo from the Nice Opera, Mathieu Barone and Eraldo Callea, and V. for his production work.
Stylisme et création costumes : Josiane Martinho
Photo Assistant : Enzo Guichard
The restitution of this residence takes the form of a large-format wall installation on the walls of the Internal Court of 109, produced by Université Côte d’Azur, as part of the festival the Image Satellite 2025.
Hubert Crabières (1989) lives and works in Argenteuil, Val d’Oise, Île-de-France. Photographer, he gathers in a single set, images directed by personal initiatives and orders. Its productions with the world of culture, the world of fashion or that of design are all fields of experimentation on the ways in which the radicality of an artistic practice confronts particular contexts, issues and economies. He has collaborated with Hermès, La Villette, La Gaîté Lyrique, Théâtre 13, Tank Magazine, Bazaar China, Maison Caron and Université Côte d’Azur. His work was presented in the Curiosa area of Paris Photo in 2023, but also at the Photo Centre Rouen Normandie or at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. His various experiences in the production of images for commercial circuits lead him to think with Alexis Etienne and a group of international artists a critical review in the form of an artist’s book, the useful idiot, whose number 0 was published in July 2022. Artistic director of the magazine, he also realizes all the photographs, extending his research around the deconstruction of aesthetics and the economies of the fashion market. The useful idiot number 0 won in 2023 the prize of the most beautiful Korean book. Number 1 was released in June 2025.