From June 28 to October 27, 2013, as part of the Normandie Impressionniste 2013 Festival, the Musée Éclaté de la presqu’île de Caen opens. An open-air museum studded with 15 pavilions made of containers invested by 15 cultural institutions, bringing together 15 artists within a 15-kilometer perimeter.
Installed in a harbour landscape spread over fifteen towns in Normandy, “MéPIC” was born of the desire to build a collective dynamic for a cultural object that aims to reconcile citizens with contemporary art. This vast project stretches from Caen to the English Channel, through a variety of landscapes alternating between maritime and agricultural activities, as well as river and seaside leisure activities, where water is the common denominator.
Barthélémy Toguo – NATURAL LIGHT, 2009 – CHINESE INK ON PAPER 38 X 28 CM # W15307 COURTESY GALERIE LELONG & BANDJOUN STATION PHOTO FABRICE GIBERT
The 15 pavilions in this fragmented scenographic arrangement are created by the cohabitation of two containers that shape the space of a gallery. This is an original way of setting the museum in the landscape, allowing it to open up explicitly to the public, whether popular or scholarly. Indeed, these containers offer an ephemeral device that engages with the logic of the site and makes us forget the intimidating nature of the museum. Yes, in Caen we refuse to make museum space sacred!
Séverine Hubard – JOLI TURBIN, 2012 ÉMERGENCE, 2009
As for the artists taking part in the event, their works seem to engage in a dialogue with one another, forming an alternative museum in the Normandy landscape. These include Hicham Berrada (Palais de Tokyo, Paris), Dominique Blais (MAM, Le Havre), Bertrand Gadenne (Musée de Rouen), Marie Voignier (MAM, Paris) and Katinka Bock (Le Credac, Ivry-sur-Seine).
Hugues Rochette – JE NE TROMPE PAS, J’AVERTIS, 2011 / CARREFOUR DE L’ÉLÉPHANT, PALAISEAU – ACRYLIC PAINT AND PRINTING ON PLEXIGLAS Ø 21 CM SANS TITRE ( ), 2008 / 2 WHITE NEON TUBES – LEFT=170 CM – RIGHT=183 CM – Ø 102 CM
The Musée Éclaté de la Presqu’île de Caen’s location at the crossroads of light, land and water multiplies points of contact and cultural dynamism in a region whose past, present and future make sense only through water, the central theme of Normandie Impressionniste 2013. In fact, MéPIC seems to give artistic creation the power to mark out a territorial identity through a very contemporary vision of water landscapes, in an original way, in a perspective of articulation between the historic city of Caen, current urbanization and the city of tomorrow.
Musée Éclaté de la Presqu’île de Caen: June 28 to October 27, 2013.
Site: http://www.mepic.fr/
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