Bertrand Carrière | Caux

1 April - 6 May 2006

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 60th 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.

 

The Pays de Caux itself is a distinct geological area. Swept by violent winds off the sea, the land rises up like an impenetrable fortress. It is dotted by ruins of the Atlantic Wall, built under Hitler’s orders and comprised of over 15,000 structures along the entire coast of the North Sea, the English Channel and the Atlantic. An austere landscape is revealed: on one side the endless sea, on the other a wall of stone. The white chalk cliffs gently erode and fall away, while the caves and open grottos are reminders of forgotten hiding places. They are souvenirs of a land haunted by memory and transformed by the forces of nature. In this monochromatic landscape, Carrière chose to photograph the surroundings in their faded and minimal colours. In the silence of winter, when the dark sky shrouds everything in mystery, he sought out the muted relics of history.

 

This is our fourth solo exhibition by Bertrand Carrière at the gallery. His work has also been exhibited across Canada and in Europe, and has been the subject of four monographs, including Caux published in March 2006. His photographs can be found in many public and private collections, including: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; Canadian Centre of Architecture, Montréal; Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris; and Encontros da Imagem, Braga, Portugal.