EXHIBITION GUEST
L’EAU VUE PAR LES PEINTRES
6–28 September 2025
L’eau vue par les artistes, an exhibition presented as part of the Millenium of the City of Caen, brings together contemporary perspectives on our relationship with water.
As a guest artist, Manuel Lefèvre presents around thirty works, including several large-scale pieces created for the occasion.
With a deep connection to Caen, he brings water and stone into dialogue through works combining painting, matter, sound and vibration.
Water flows through the exhibition as it has for centuries: fluid and persistent, shaping matter and awakening memory.
This page presents a selection of fragments from the exhibition.
L’eau vue par les artistes brings together contemporary perspectives on our relationship with water.
Invited by the Millenium of the City of Caen, Manuel Lefèvre presents around thirty works combining painting, matter, sound and stone. The exhibition marks an important step in his ongoing research into water, the memory of places and Caen stone.
ML273 – ML274 – ML275
What water does to the eye, what sound does to silence.
Triptych – 160 × 420 cm – Sound painting
Original sound creation shaped like a sculpture, mixed media
A work to look at. A work to listen to.
This triptych explores the inner movement of matter, the fluid memory of forms and the energy that flows between the visible and the invisible.
Water is present without being depicted. It can be sensed in the ripples, textures and depth of the blue. It absorbs, pulses and holds.
At its centre is a unique speaker, designed to diffuse a blend of music and aquatic sounds. Created in partnership with Pierre Lemariey, sound engineer, originally from Normandy and founder of Long Play Pro Audio, based in Brussels, it becomes both a painting and a sound transducer. Sound does not comment on the image: it extends its gesture and becomes matter.
For the musical creation, Manuel Lefèvre collaborated with Caen-born electronic musician Fakear, whose work has gained international recognition. His sound world intertwines with the painting, creating a sensory space where image and vibration become a single presence.
First presented at Saint-Nicolas Church in Caen, the work was part of L’eau vue par les artistes (#MillénaireCaen2025 – September), in dialogue with the architecture of the site and the silence it invites us to hear.
ML274 – ML275
What water does to the eye, what sound does to silence.
Triptych – 160 × 420 cm – Sound painting
Original sound creation shaped like a sculpture, mixed media
A work to look at. A work to listen to.
This triptych brings together painting, sculpture and sound to explore the memory of matter and the invisible movement of water. Created with Long Play Pro Audio and musician Fakear, it invites an experience where image, vibration and sound become a single work.
ML280
Water is not gentle.
Pictorial installation – 180 × 120 × 120 cm, with continuous water flow
Relief mixed-media painting, Caen stone, water
Water leaves its mark, erodes, transforms.
In Caen, the Orne flows through the city, linking the stone to the sea. Since the 11th century, it has carried the pale stone onwards, contributing to the building of cathedrals and the shaping of collective memory.
ML280 is part of this fluid history. Water continuously flows over a surface combining pigments and fragments of Caen stone.
Nothing overflows under this constant flow — yet everything is at work.
The material absorbs, resists and slowly changes. A tension emerges between permanence and transformation, between stillness and movement.
Here, the artistic gesture enters the long process of erosion, subtle change and memory in motion.
What the water whispers: matter forgets nothing.
ML280
Water is not gentle.
Pictorial installation – 180 × 120 × 120 cm, with continuous water flow
Relief mixed-media painting, Caen stone, water
Water leaves its mark, erodes, transforms.
ML280 explores the dialogue between water and Caen stone.
Water flows continuously over a surface combining pigments and fragments of stone. Between permanence and transformation, the work reveals the slow process of erosion and the silent memory held within matter.
