Nicolas Baghir (1974)

Nicolas Baghir was born in Paris in 1974. He lives and works in Paris and on the road.

He took his first photos in 1984 and worked as a dilettante until the mid-90s, photographing his family and friends. From 1990 onwards, he devoted himself more seriously to photography, and between 1998 and 2013 he documented a group of around ten Jamaican singers. In 2011, his first “Perturbations”, images that resemble paintings or drawings, were born; this work picked up speed in 2013 and will be exhibited in 2014. He started developing his Photographic Passports in 2018. Since that same year, he has been developing his project "La Chambre" in a micro-studio where he manages to combine all of his artistic approaches.

ONGOING EXHIBITION

2023 | CLERMONT-FERRAND | Galerie Catherine Pennec exhibition "Dans la tête de Nicolas Baghir" in collaboration with Galerie XII Paris. Alongside Diane de Sein Léger, sculptor.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020 | PARIS "Undercover" | 59 Rivoli Gallery (with the agreement of Galerie XII)

 2019 | PARIS "Passeports Photographiques" / (Galerie XII)

 2019 | SHANGHAI "Photographic Passports" / (Galerie XII)

 2018 | PARIS "Variations 2.18" / (Galerie XII) Paris

 2017 | RENNES / "Around Slow Joe" / Bar en Trans

 2016 | LOS ANGELES "Visions" / Artists' Corner Gallery (Galerie XII)

 2016 | ARLES "Visions" / Galerie Huit Arles

 2015 | PARIS / "Visions" / Galerie XII (Galerie XII)

 2015 | PORTO ("Photographies ?") / Days Are Gallery.

 2014 | PARIS 6 / "Photographies II ?" / Galerie des Sans-Galeries / Johann Levy

 2014 | PARIS 3 / "Photographies? "Fat Galerie / Sitor Senghor

GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND ART FAIRS

2019 | "Whiteout" / Gallery XII Los Angeles

2019 | Fotofever | Carrousel du Louvre, Paris

2018 | Art Elysées 2018 | Paris

2018 | MIA 2018 | Milan (Gallery XII)

2018 | PhotoShanghai 2018 | Shanghai Exhibition Center (GXII)

2017 | MIA PhotoFair, Milan | THE MALL - PORTA NUOVA VARESINE (GXII)

2017 | SHANGHAI / Photo Shanghai Art Fair / (Gallery XII)

2017 | BORDEAUX / (Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez)

2017 | BERLIN / "Im Raum" / Im Raum Gallery

2017 | SAN FRANCISCO PHOTO FAIR (Gallery XII)

2016 | PARIS / Art Elysée (Galerie XII)

2016 | SHANGHAI / Photo Shanghai Art Fair / (Gallery XII)

2016 | PARIS Grand Palais (Art Paris Art Fair) (Gallery XII)

2016 |LOS ANGELES - Photo L.A / (Gallery XII)

2015 | PARIS / Fotofever 2015

2015 | PARIS Grand Palais / Art Capital (Salon des Indépendants)

2015 | PARIS / KAZOART Gallery

2014 | PARIS 3 / Galerie Lazarew

In collaboration with :

Interview with Nicolas Baghir on March 8, 2023

The title of the exhibition "Dans la tête de Nicolas Baghir" ("In the mind of Nicolas Baghir") offers the artist and visitors a new experience of discovering his photographic streams. Indeed, until now, his streams (a term used by the artist in opposition to the usual ‘series’ used in photography) have always been exhibited by their thematic titles, i.e. PN, PNC, PP, PH or even PX, which by pure chance is not presented here. The title also relates to the artist's creative space, namely his small studio called "La Chambre" (The Room), which is a natural counterpart to another creative space, an outdoors one, called "Hors la Chambre" (Outside the Room).

In order to explore this idea further, in July 2018, Nicolas Baghir found refuge in a seven-square-meter studio on the seventh floor without a lift, in a small room with a window overlooking a courtyard in the heart of Paris. In a limited space where the sun's rays only passed through a small dormer window, he used this well of natural light and developed an original, free, work where all the visual expressions deployed in his work since 2014 came together. The titles of his photographs were their only common identity (namely PN, PNC, PP, PH and PX), but now they were connected by this place: La Chambre. He likes to speak of 'brain extraction' to describe his work, which comes from the depths of his retinal screen, and which helps us to understand the title chosen for this exhibition 'Inside the head of'. He processes his images as a blurring of memory and an alteration of recollection in order to stop time. He breaks his solitude by inviting in subjects that he forges and transforms for the imagined photograph, somewhere in between painting and photography.

Using mostly slow speeds, he holds his breath for most of the indoor shots, while he starts breathing again deeply for the solitary landscapes that open up horizons which close up again once he gets back upstairs. This creative escape punctuates apneas of silent breathing, like his painting sessions where he prepares his Passports on large cardboard boxes, and his Perturbations that he prepares in paint on the three walls of his studio, and the same perpetually repainted clothes that he recycles endlessly for his models in an infinite cycle. No photo is retouched, everything is done at the shoot. The numerical titles, which all begin with the letter P for Photo, create a sense of mystery about the subjects, giving the spectator total freedom of interpretation.

STREAM TITLES:

 - PN & PNC = Digital Perturbations (Black & White) and Digital Color Perturbations, are all traditional film photographs taken at the shoot (e.g. PN # 426-633).

- PP = Photographic Passports, digital photographs taken at the shoot through the play of reflections in my paintings (PP # 5624).

- PX = Digital photographs, unfiltered (PX # 4572-12).

- PH = Traditional film photographs, unfiltered (PH # 9426).