SUR ET SOUS LES FLOTS

An exhibition in resonance with “Voiles de légende”
With artists Åbäke, Sarah Feuillas, Capucine Vever

At Frac Grand Large from 13 June to 2 November (seasonal closure from 1 September to 4 October) and at the Risban Lighthouse from 28 June to 28 September, in partnership with the Dunkirk Maritime and Port Museum.

Opening: 4 October at 5:00 p.m.

The exhibition “Over and Under the Waves” offers a journey through three sea-related narratives, bringing together contemporary artists’ perspectives on landscapes, memories, and imagination.

With her series of nine engravings entitled Lame de fond (Groundswell), Capucine Vever draws inspiration from maritime transport to trace, through the movements of cargo ships, an implicit and ever-shifting cartography of our globalized world. In echo, her video La Relève, presented at the Risban Lighthouse, offers a meditation on the incessant ballet of these often-invisible vessels.

Installed in the Frac’s Belvedere, the installation FACEBOAT & SAIL FACE, created by the collective Åbäke in collaboration with basket makers, blacksmiths, and ropemakers from a Dutch maritime open-air museum, takes the form of a hybrid vessel. Its sail and hull bear a composite face, born from the fusion of the features of all the artisans involved. Part-chimera, part-witness, this symbolic figure gazes both toward the horizon and into the depths.

Finally, Sarah Feuillas explores the links between sea, memory, and resilience with Martha, a film inspired by the figurehead of a former fishing boat. The artist submerged sculptures in the Port of Dunkirk, made from the traumatic memories of patient-partners. Connected to neuroscience research at the LiLNCOG laboratory of the University of Lille and the National Center for Resources and Resilience (Cn2r), these sculptures served as a basis for measuring the intensity of emotions and their transformations over time. This journey into the past and into maritime depths — both intimate and collective — turns water into a medium for a fragile balance between memory and forgetting.

Enjoy a reduced rate at the Risban Lighthouse upon presentation of your Frac Grand Large ticket! Please check the Risban Lighthouse opening hours.