Exhibition | The Countryside, Photography and Rural Life

‘Cambrousse’: a different perspective on rural life
An exhibition at Les Dominicaines, art centre & art library

To mark the bicentenary of the invention of photography, Les Dominicaines are dedicating an exhibition to rural life and the ties that bind local people to their land.

Entitled ‘Cambrousse’, the exhibition explores the many facets of the contemporary rural world. Far from being a static landscape, the countryside emerges as a space undergoing profound transformation, shaped not only by ecological, economic and social challenges, but also by notions of attachment, memory and identity.

Bringing together works from the Frac Normandie, the Planche(s) Contact Festival in Deauville and artists based in Normandy, the exhibition offers a variety of perspectives on the region. Photographs by Éric Tabuchi, Pierre Donadio, Pierre-Yves Racine, Jeanne Dubois-Pacquet, Martin Depalle, Larry Fink, SMITH and Matt Wilson, as well as a video by Gohar Martirosian, challenge the way we view and represent the countryside.

Through this diversity of approaches, ‘Cambrousse’ demonstrates that photography does more than simply document the rural world: it reveals its changes, tensions and attachments. A living landscape, far removed from clichés, where permanence and disappearance, memory and transformation come into conflict.