Par Franck Hermel
Published on 1 Sep 23 at 18:15 See my news Follow Le Journal des Sables Jean-Marc Arthot and his faithful rolleiflex. ©Journal des Sables
For years, Jean-Marc Arthot has made the city of New York and that of Les Sables-d’Olonne coexist within the same shots.
Here, the skyscrapers rise behind the Grande Plage. There, the Statue of Liberty stands at the end of the pier.
The concept « New Les Sables seduces. The artist realizes that he is inexhaustible. Better: that it lends itself perfectly to the whole of Vendée.
And when a new edition of the “New York Les Sables” nautical race is announced, the gray cells are activated to find a new project which will further strengthen the links between the Vendée and the Big Apple.
Vibrations
The meeting between Jean-Marc Arthot and the Big Apple was as much physical as artistic. It dates back to 2015.
Advertiser, creative in the service of companies, he had to follow a client to New York who was looking for outlets across the Atlantic.
To help him build his communication, Jean-Marc Arthot wants to go there to understand, to feel the vibrations that can only be found there. It was the time when advertisers returned to film photography, rediscovering the potential of this good old rolleiflex.
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“It was there that I realized the dimensional gap that separates France from the United States, that I saw how different the fields of possibilities were. »
Jean-Marc Arthot, photographer
We are one year away from the start of the first New York Les Sables. Out of the question for the advertiser not to be present at the start. Photography would be his sesame.
“It was then that I came up with the idea of mixing New York and Les Sables-d’Olonne in the same photo. When I made a poster with New York in the background of the Grande Plage in Les Sables-d’Olonne, I told myself that I had something in mind. »
On the sand side, it creates in any case the buzz.
Les Sables-d’Olonne and New York mingled in a series of photographs. ©JM Arthot.
Noirmout’York and La Roche-sur-York
Five trips to New York will follow, leading to some 200 creations.
“It’s an almost inexhaustible vein, one lifetime wouldn’t be enough. »
Across the Atlantic, Jean-Marc Arthot adds the making of contacts to the shots. He understands how much the Breton migration to the United States remains in the memories. Migration from Vendée to the New World also exists. He wants to value it in turn. With Laurent Corbel and Nicolas Marion, he has also just created the Vendée New York Club, a group on social networks, brought to develop to create a real structure of exchanges, memory, pedagogy.
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Creating a bridge between the Vendée and the Big Apple is also what the Departmental Council does, which does not hide the fact that the New York Vendée Les Sables, in 2024, will be a perfect opportunity to plant the Vendée heart in the heart of the Big Apple. .
For Jean-Marc Arthot, this is enough to give ideas. He thus began a series of 85 paintings to cover the region. To Noirmout’York and La Roche-sur-York, for example, the Island of York should soon be added.
Jean-Marc Arthot wants to meet the American dream and the Vendée miracle. ©JM Arthot.
Portraits
And through other future creations, the artist intends to bring together the Vendée miracle and the American dream.
“I want to show that the Vendée can interest Americans. It’s possible. Look at the example of Puy du Fou! »
The idea is to draw 50 portraits, both written and photographic. As many as the number of stars on Uncle Sam’s flag: 25 portraits of Vendéans who left to live in the United States and as many portraits of Americans living in Vendée. “Men and women, but also whole families, I will make a photographic portrait of them accompanied by a text summarizing their journey, the reasons for their expatriation across the Atlantic and the links they maintain with their land of origin. “, he wrote on his Facebook page.
These 50 portraits added to his 85 creations inspired by the whole region will be the subject of a major exhibition on the occasion of the start of the New York Vendée Les Sables-d’Olonne in June 2024.
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Already, the Saint-Nicolas des Sables priory is reserved for him from June 1st to 18th. But Jean-Marc Arthot intends to involve other municipalities in Vendée, even schools, in this project.
Because for him, in Vendée as in New York, everything is possible.
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2023-09-01 16:15:14
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