Joël Andrianomearisoa Debuts “La Vague Affection” at Un Été Au Havre

The 2024 edition, open now through September 22, was curated by Gaël Charbau and feaures site-specific installations and works by artists like Stéphane Vigny, Edgar Sarin, Ad Minoliti, Gregory Chatonsky, and Joël Andrianomearisoa.

The first edition of Un Eté Au Havre took place in Le Havre, France in 2017. In celebration of the French port city’s 500th anniversary, the activation was fueled by a presentation of art installations, visited by millions from around the globe. Since, Un Eté Au Havre (“A Summer in Le Havre”) has become a not-to-be-missed open-air contemporary art happening filled with artworks inspired by the site they’re presented on. Its success has led to an annual presentation and a permanent art collection, tied to Le Havre’s identity.

Andrianomearisoa’s presentation at this year’s edition, La Vague Affection, is shown with support from the Rubis Mécénat endowment fund—the energy company’s promotion of global artistic creation, which has supported Andrianomearisoa’s work since 2019, when he represented his country at the first Malagasy pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale.

Joël Andrianomearisoa’s “La Vague Affection”

Presented between two landmarks—the Bibliothèque Universitaire du Havre and the Bains des Docks—are words by the artist that glow in the dark: Sur la vague infinie se joue le théâtre de nos affections (“The theater of our affections plays out on the infinite wave”) and Sur le crépuscule du temps se dessinent nos promesses éternelles (“Our eternal promises take shape on the twilight of time”).

Seen on the facades of the sites, the poetic words are derived from a poem Andrianomearisoa wrote in a recently released novel of the same name, La Vague Affection. Inside the library, postcards featuring fragments of the artist’s poems are scattered for readers to discover.

“It starts and ends with a love story,”

— Joël Andrianomearisoa

“It took us about a year to decide on the perfect scale and how we were going to work on it,” Andrianomearisoa told Whitewall. “It was very interesting because I didn’t know Le Havre, the history of Le Havre, so it was interesting. We end up with a novel, a real book named La Vague Affection, which was the starting point of everything. Inside, I wrote a love letter to the city of Le Havre. It’s 120 pages, and it starts and ends with a love story.”

Andrianomearisoa’s love letter was filled with many romantic contradictions and notes about the push and pull of being in love with something—in this case, a place—you don’t quite understand. “The poems are something I’m writing to a city that I don’t know. I would love to know. I would love to love it, but I will never fall in love with it. It’s this kind of attraction, but at a certain point, I’m afraid of it. It’s, ‘I love you, but I don’t love you. I’m here, but I would not give you another step.’ I don’t want to say that it’s about love; it’s more sentimental. It’s something that is more playful-seductive,” he said.

“Everything is about the city,”

— Joël Andrianomearisoa

“Everything is about the city. I’m talking about concrete. I’m talking about the street. I’m talking about some monuments. I’m talking about the sea. I’m talking about the beach. I’m talking about boats. I’m talking about the people. I’m talking about some art references that they have there, like Impressionism, for example,” said Andrianomearisoa.

Working between Paris and his birthplace of Antananarivo, Madagascar, Andrianomearisoa has long explored scale, language, and history in his work. Over the past several decades, his sculptures, installations, textiles, and collaborations have been presented at MAXXI in Rome, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

A New Chapter for Hakanto Contemporary

This fall, the artist will also open a new home for his Hakanto Contemporary art complex—a non-profit art and community space he spearheaded in Antananarivo, Madagascar, dedicated to presenting Malagasy art. The new space will span over five times more space, encompassing rooms for exhibitions, workshops, a boutique, and more. Its inaugural exhibition, “Family Stories,” opens September 15.

“This inaugural program unfolds through a captivating series of three monographs by three Malagasy artists or artists with close ties to Madagascar. Aude Onivola Rajaona, Alexandre Gourçon, and Jessy Razafimandimby embark on a deeply personal and sensitive exploration of family bonds through their original new works,” said Andrianomearisoa.