The exhibition Cette mer qui nous entoure (The Sea Around Us), imagined by artconnexion on invitation of the Espace Le Carré, invites us to rethink our relationship with marine spaces, their bounty and diversity, to consider their fragility.

Cette mer qui nous entoure takes up the title of marine biologist Rachel Carson's book (The Sea Around Us) published by Oxford University Press in 1951. The author, a notorious figure of global ecology, gives a narrative and scientific account of the ocean.

Although requiring to be read with some hindsight, considering more recent scientific discoveries, The Sea Around Usis evidence of a first realization of the issues at stake in the field of marine ecology, and managed to popularize environmental issues surrounding our planet's seas and oceans to the general public.

Here or abroad, the sea, as a natural and vital resource, is put to the test by climate change and human activities. Once perceived as hostile, the ocean was progressively invested and appropriated by humans. Rising water levels, overfishing, accumulation of waste and weakening of marine biodiversity are all core topics of today’s environmental issues. How can we learn to have a better knowledge of underwater life to better respect it? How can we shed new light on this environment, of which we only know the waves’ surface?

The exhibition brings together several artists who are supported by artconnexion as part of its production and support for research missions. The sea is a source of knowledge from which the artists draw inspiration to bring about multiple interrogations. Enigmatic and familiar, it is the starting point for the creations of each invited artist. Like Rachel Carson’s book, the pieces that are shown are evidence of the artists’ interest and concerns for marine life, coastal life, as well as that of ocean floors and foreign seas.

By mixing art and science, observing life in the seabed, or using humour as a way to deflect climate anxieties, the artists question our relationships with the ocean and our representations of it. Through a cartography of the sea, both real and conceptual, they reassess the necessity for an ecological transition, and shed light on the physical, scientific and vital bonds that tie us to the aquatic element.

A reading space offers literary resources and allows visitors to immerse themselves in the artistic and ecological stakes surrounding to the ocean.