As part of Voyage à Nantes, Caroline Le Méhauté’s poetic, philosophical, scientific, and political practice explores the different interactions between humans and their environment. Many of the artist’s works are titled "Négociations," evoking both humanity’s perpetual and universal dealings with nature and the sculptor’s more personal dialogue with material. Natural elements such as peat, coconut fiber, stones, cork, clay, beeswax, and mycelium make up her works.Through her research and creative residencies, or close to where she lives, the artist focuses on soils, what they are made of, their history, and their future. For this exhibition, Caroline Le Méhauté brings together a number of previously unseen works connected to Nantes, made from different peatland, market-garden, and forest soils, alongside earlier works from research and experimental contexts centered on soils. While the artist highlights the richness of soils in the exhibition, she also evokes the threats they face, as in the work "Négociation 95 - Décoloniser les imaginaires" (2018), made from materials found in an illegal dump in Normandie. “Among various waste materials, a thick motor oil lay at the foot of a mound of earth. The form the work takes evokes a bathtub, a trough, a drinking basin, and a sarcophagus all at once. The earth containing the oil is cracking. Ready to give way, it is thirsty. This sculpture points to contemporary issues linked to earth and water: the impoverishment of one and the lack of the other.” Exhibition from July 4 to September 6, 2026:every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. + Flash tours 7 days a week at 11:30 a.m. - duration: 20-30 minutes, free, no booking required, subject to available places. As part of Voyage à Nantes, Caroline Le Méhauté’s poetic, philosophical, scientific, and political practice explores the different interactions between humans and their environment. Many of the artist’s works are titled "Négociations," evoking both humanity’s perpetual and universal dealings with nature and the sculptor’s more personal dialogue with material. Natural elements such as peat, coconut fiber, stones, cork, clay, beeswax, and mycelium make up her works. Through her research and creative residencies, or close to where she lives, the artist focuses on soils, what they are made of, their history, and their future. For this exhibition, Caroline Le Méhauté brings together a number of previously unseen works connected to Nantes, made from different peatland, market-garden, and forest soils, alongside earlier works from research and experimental contexts centered on soils. While the artist highlights the richness of soils in the exhibition, she also evokes the threats they face, as in the work "Négociation 95 - Décoloniser les imaginaires" (2018), made from materials found in an illegal dump in Normandie. “Among various waste materials, a thick motor oil lay at the foot of a mound of earth. The form the work takes evokes a bathtub, a trough, a drinking basin, and a sarcophagus all at once. The earth containing the oil is cracking. Ready to give way, it is thirsty. This sculpture points to contemporary issues linked to earth and water: the impoverishment of one and the lack of the other.” Exhibition from July 4 to September 6, 2026: every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. + Flash tours 7 days a week at 11:30 a.m. - duration: 20-30 minutes, free, no booking required, subject to available places.
Source: Nantes Métropole