When the graduation exhibition was over, we planned a voyage on the barge with my friend Fabio. We attached a canvas under the hull to protect it from potential shocks, we carved holds for the rows and the rudder, and created an anchor from the frame of an old chair and a sheet of perforated iron that used to be an old painting of mine.
The Calonne river turned out to be difficult to navigate. It was shallow yet flowing with a strong stream and many trees had fallen into the water. We managed to reach the Touques river in Pont-l’Évêque after chopping a lot of trees out of our way. The Touques river was nicer to boat on and we finally joined the sea in Deauville, despite the difficulties caused by the rising tide. We spent four days and three nights on the trip.
The canvas attached under the barge carries all the traces from the trip, the hits, the shocks, the trees, and the stones. I changed it for another one when we took on the next trip with my friend Redoine on the Loire river. The idea is to preserve these canvases, which are ambivalent creations, born in the intersection of a protection canvas and an artwork. They depict a shared moment, an exchange, a distance, a movement, a time.