Bolstered by his artistic and scientific training, Hicham Berrada (b. 1986, lives and works in Paris) combines intuition and knowledge, science and poetry to present the changes and metamorphoses of a chemically or mechanically activated “nature.” From the laboratory to the studio, through chemical experiments and performances, Hicham Berrada explores in his work scientific protocols that closely imitate various natural processes and/or climatic conditions.

An authentic chemical theater, Présage is the result of a performance in which the artist, by combining various chemical products in a beaker, creates a chimerical world animated by his manipulations. These transformations of matter, simultaneously filmed and projected on-screen, immerse the audience in a world of fascinating colors and shapes. These experiments result in scale models of living organisms, which are then set in resin to become veritable still-lives.

In this manner, Hicham Berrrada creates a personal universe that is intrinsically tied to an experimental method, playing on its codes and protocols while inviting the audience to experience the original presence of energies and forces emerging from matter. Much more than mere formal artifice, this work brings visitors to an alternate world both living and inert, and suggests that they contemplate and question the notions of creation, nature, and matter.