Until March 31, 2023, the exhibition “What the sea leaves us” in La Rochelle plunges into the work of the artist Sébastien Bé. This collector of old paper embellishes the navy archives with his drawings.
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You don’t really like archival documents and the smell of dust they give off? In La Rochelle, in an exhibition visible until March 31, 2023, the artist Sébastien Bé is betting on interesting the public in his collection of old paper from the navy by embellishing this paperwork with his colorful drawings.
“I think I have one of the largest collections of papers in France concerning the navy. It’s quite rare. Today, everything that is nautical is either preempted by maritime museums, or really sought after by collectors. It circulates very little in the trade”comments Sébastien Bé.
An artistic herbarium
This former film photographer has changed tack to convert to the visual arts and come to settle on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. At 37, he now composes herbariums in which he incorporates objects he finds on the beach and old archive papers. He adds colorful patterns to it.
“I am very careful not to cover up any information at all, because these are documents loaded with a lot of poetry and sometimes historical information. Here, it is a document which dates from the 1870s. It is a logbook which is manuscript and was written in pen. It tells the whole day of a sailor’s voyage”says Sébastien Bé.
The artist has always enjoyed the company of old objects. “I like things that have a patina. Today, we like things that are as smooth as possible. I find that the more worn it is, the more beautiful it is”he concludes.
The exhibition “What the sea leaves us” is visible at the Maison du port in La Rochelle until March 31, 2023. Free entry.
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