La furie et la foi - Jérémy Charbaut

Jérémy Charbaut does not adopt a picturesque or clichéd approach to this district of Le Havre. Color takes on an emotional rather than merely descriptive meaning; reality is transfigured without being betrayed; the chiaroscuro evokes Rembrandt as much as Soulages.

The artist sets two elements against each other: fury and faith. The fury of the sea, at times unleashed; the fury of labor, of the harshness of both the work and the neighborhood; the harshness of fatigue weighing down bodies; a fury that is almost mythological, a vengeful goddess come to hound the poor souls of the Saint-François district. And then faith: as an attachment to the place, as solidarity and transmission among the neighborhood’s inhabitants, as hope.