Bertrand Carrière | Caux

Exhibition Dates: April 1 – May 6, 2006

Opening reception and book signing with the artist: Saturday, April 1, 2-5 PM

Caux: (Pays de Caux) A word of Norman dialect meaning the chalky soil which makes up the geological content of this area. Upper Normandy is divided into two areas: the Pays de Caux and the Pays de Bray.

On August 14, 1942 Allied forces landed on the beach of Dieppe in the Normandy region of France. By day’s end, 1400 Allied soldiers had lost their lives; 913 of these men were Canadian soldiers. Fascinated by this tragic tale, Bertrand Carrière was inspired to commemorate the 60^th Anniversary of Dieppe. The project Jubilee consisted of 913 photographs of young Canadian men (mostly soldiers at the Val-Cartier Base in Québec) installed in situ on the beach in Normandy. It was an ephemeral monument which at low tide revealed the faces of hundreds of anonymous men staring back at the viewer. Slowly, they disappeared into the sea with the rising tide. He documented this project in the film 913, which will be screening throughout Caux. (Please see over for details.)

Throughout the installation of this work, Carrière found himself affected by the countryside, particularly the striking contrast between the light of the coastal sky and the somber features below. He felt compelled to further explore the buried memories of the Upper Normandy landscape. This was the genesis of Caux, a project that is a continuation of, and perhaps even the reverse side of Jubilee. The images depict what the men landing at Dieppe saw:  a wall of stone.