A summer in Le Havre offers its 9th artistic journey

The ^9th edition of Un été au Havre, an event created in 2017 to celebrate the ^500th anniversary of the city's creation and which has continued ever since, is a truly fine vintage. Following a now-tried principle, artistic curator Gaël Charbau called upon a dozen artists to create nine monumental works installed in the public space. Some are intended to be permanent, which, over time, begins to build up an art collection in the city that gradually changes its appearance, and they are largely adopted by residents. Conceived in 2017 by Vincent Ganivet, La Catène de containers, two arches made of juxtaposed and brightly colored shipping containers, has thus become one of the symbols of the port city.

What is striking about this edition is the variety of proposals and techniques used. The Bureau Idéal duo chose mosaics to enliven the undulating roof of one of the two kiosks created in 1967 on the seafront by architects René Déchenaud and André Hermant, collaborators of Auguste Perret during the reconstruction of Le Havre. A sort of snub to the orthogonality of their boss's buildings, which had unfortunately suffered the ravages of time. One of them was destroyed, but the other was restored to accommodate this large fresco, which seems intended for cormorants since it can only be seen in its entirety from above.

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