Hugues Clément^CA/QC

An artist known for melding digital with organic and manipulated sound with abstract images, Hugues Clément deploys glitch, 3D modelling and graphic interventions in playful, poetic and sometimes brightly kitschy ways. His visual collages are both uncanny and inviting, destabilizing recognizable sights in the natural world with electronic stutters and unexpected digital data forms.

Informed by his studies in electroacoustics, and compositions for theatre and contemporary dance, Clément approaches his audiovisual performances, mapping, design, VJing and visual installation work with artistic deliberation and a playful eye for graphic and audio juxtaposition. Since winning the SAT’s Bourse Euterke for emerging VJs in 2011, he's pushed the limits of audiovisual art and digital manipulation to pose the question: What is real? His GLEAM project, based on the de/contextualization of caverns, won first prize from both jury and audience at MUTEK’s, The Crystal Interface competition in 2014, while in 2017 he received the bronze medal for Digital Creation at international cultural event Jeux de la Francophonie in Abidjan. He's constructed abstract landscapes using forms that constantly dance and shift to a beat, created thematic collages through sound samples, glitch and new 3D modelling interventions, and taken digital art to extremes to reflect the thinning boundary between reality and digital.

At MUTEK this year, Clément's audiovisual performance The Colour of the Rain links digital glitch with abstracted human nature to shift reality as we know it. Clément's live A/V experience activates a journey of reflection for audiences, considering on our actions and conscious choices towards ourselves and others in lives increasingly formed through digital connection.