Interview: Boris Garanger
Luca Curci talks with Boris Garanger, winner of the ARTIST OF THE MONTH – MAY 2020.

Boris Garanger is 34 years old and was born in France. After his Baccalauréat (for UK French equivalent of the A levels, for US high school diploma) he decided to spend a year abroad in Bournemouth, England. It is said that travelling shapes the youth. As he bounded with youngsters from all over the world, he came back with an extremely developed intercultural sensitivity. Bilingual, he enters the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Lorient where he spends a year discovering several techniques. With an increasing desire of wanting to pursue his formation in visual arts, he entered in second year at the Beaux Arts de Rennes with an option in Art. There, he will develop a strong interest in contemporary art. He spent his 4th year at the Ecole La Cambre in Brussels, with an option in sculpture. After a year, he took the decision to leave. Out of a longing for adventure and a taste for risk taking, he spends a year travelling (Madagascar, île Maurice,…) and is inspired pictorially by these different landscapes… He undertakes a special formation of metal and iron work. His daily jobs in the construction business have given him a certain expertise in assembling and building, which is not unrelated to his artistic project… Then came Switzerland, Canada, the United-States… Yearning for new landscapes, encounters, knowledge, and greatness, Boris Garanger soaks in experiences from his different travels in order to feed its creation. As he came back to France in 2017, he decided to settle there, as well as fully and definitively commit to his artistic work. He regularly takes part in events and contests.

Luca Curci – What is art for you?
Boris Garanger – To answer the question, I would first like to ask another one. Do you have to be an artist to create a work of art? Conversely, does the artist become so when he wants to create a work of art? To create a work of art, there is the idea, the idea of the artist and then the idea is shaped. An idea will take on a plastic dimension. The artist’s hands symbolize his know-how, his talent. The hands are literally the link between thought and matter. The hands touch, give form to the material. The artist’s hand is the symbol of the unique and true work. This is no longer a constant in contemporary art. But this idea is rooted in collective thought.

Art is a vehicle. It is a way to share an idea, a concept through formatting.
Art allows you to convey feelings and emotions. It appears when there is a symbiosis of the senses and the mind.
Art occupies the conscious and unconscious ground, individual and collective.
Art is a creative process where the result shows us a vision, a particular point of view on things known to all.
If art had a purpose, it would be to transform us, to change something in us sometimes tiny, often unconscious.
Art has no why or how.
Art is, it has no useful meaning it is in a higher dimension. He has no other goal than himself.
Art is where you don’t expect it. He is there to surprise us because he is transgressive.
Art is an idea which is constantly renewed and which is therefore constitutive of itself. Indeed, the boundaries of the concept of art are in constant motion. The creative act that attempts to move these boundaries is an artistic act.
I agree with Deleuze that the artistic process is an act of resistance because it is apolitical and is governed by great energy. The work of art resists death. If the artwork is fleeting, it will last in memory. A trace by the memory.
Art does not pretend to change nature. He transcended it.
Art rediscovers the spiritual, almost mystical, almost magic substance of creation.

LC – What are you currently working on?
BG – I continue to paint on the theme of Artifacts where I put the clothes in the spotlight. The clothing worn. Not the crumpled garment, on a hanger or folded, but the garment where you can feel the body underneath. The clothing is an intermediary, a mediator between the spectator and my characters. I would say that it informs us about personal and collective identity as well as about ourselves by mirror effect or by transposition. These last two months I have worked on canvases rather different from what I used to paint. These are spaces, places where human presence would only be suggested by its absence. A more intimate, more introverted look commits us to contemplation. I build compositions that take place in the space of the canvas, concentrating my effort on, points, lines, surfaces, colors; the relationship between them and the resulting tensions. Empty to make room for the hidden senses of things; a mystical experience. They are images of impulses to the disturbance of consciousness. Because we become aware of the void, the subconscious can circulate freely. In parallel, I am preparing a creative project with children as part of the Atelier Médicis in order to obtain assistance for creation.

LC – Which is the role the artist plays in the society? And the contemporary art?
BG – I don’t think the artist plays a role unless he’s an actor (lol). He must concentrate at the strongest on his creation, immerse yourself fully with great discipline. The artist has a duty towards art and its creation, outside the commercial principle, not towards society. When he is close enough to the “real” then his “message” can serve others. His music will lift souls and can awaken consciences. In contemporary creation, the artist must be transgressive and subversive. The permanent questioning of its creation is essential. The artist is engaged.

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
BG – Inspiration comes naturally when the mind gets used to seeing everything with a singular vision. Questioning things, a different point of view, philosophy allows us to break away from stereotypes. Understanding, observation, openness to the nature of things, and its principles dictate the method.

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your artworks?
BG – I would say that the most delicate moment in creation is the attack on the canvas or the blank page. It’s both hopeful because anything is possible but it can be scary. The best way to remedy this is to do a lot because we are less in the unknown which can scare us.

LC – What is your creative process like?
BG – First I build an image by collage or digital collage. It allows me to work on the composition. When I attack the canvas, I go there with a large brushstroke fairly wide with the paint diluted in the turpentine. The moment is crucial because it will be the energy, the light, the madness of the end result. Then I work more precisely on colors and their relationships. Working on solid colors, colored tints, gradients according to the desired rendering.

more. www.borisgaranger.fr