“A summer in Le Havre”, a festival firmly rooted in the Normandy port

This will be his last trip as artistic director of “A Summer in Le Havre”, and, before handing over, to mark this sixth edition, Jean Blaise has decided to anchor the contemporary art festival more firmly on the whole of the Norman city-port. Five works specially produced for the summer event will remain permanently in the public space, adding to the ten already created.

Initially designed in 2017 as a variation of Voyage à Nantes, for the 500^e anniversary of Le Havre, the event has grown in size and has enjoyed growing success over the past six years. The public was particularly present in 2021, with 950,000 visitors, the exhibition becoming a real center of tourist attraction. A feat for this popular city long ignored. “This has a big economic impact and allows a real rediscovery of the city, both for Le Havre and for tourists”, rejoices Marine Troquet, responsible for cultural mediators. The annual budget of 3 million euros has made it possible, over the years, to mark the transformation of the municipality, led today by Edouard Philippe (Horizons).

From year to year, artists have left traces in the urban fabric that have become, over the months, so many city landmarks. “This year I wanted to complete a course in the lower town, by identifying sites that give different atmospheres”, explains Jean Blaise. Neighborhoods hitherto left out of the protest – the fishing port, the Saint-François district around the church of Auguste Perret, the Saint-Vincent district – have seen new works set up.

A funny totem

You have to go and see the Volcano again, at the top of which the silhouette of a young skater makes you dizzy, as if he was going to dash down the slope of Oscar Niemeyer’s building. Mark Jenkins imagined the wrinkled dream with this statue in unstable balance, inspired by the world of urban cultures dear to the American artist. Further on, hanging from a swing, leaning forward, looking towards the water, the silhouette of a young girl is swinging. These two staggered appearances are part of six Embed Bodies, molded sculptures, that the visual artist has scattered in the streets. The hidden faces—here by a hood, there by hair—would exude an almost disturbing confusion if Jenkins hadn’t injected a bit of mischief into them.

More curious, the funny huge totem that Izumi Kato has planted in front of the Saint-Vincent church: in a camouflage version with its colors taking up those of the trees which surround it, the huge humanoid sculpture seems to have its lower abdomen foraged by a big wasp. Here again an ambiguous in-between with this character with big eyes like a cartoon by Miyazaki.

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