By La Chapelle des Jésuites de Saint-Omer and CAPSO Cultural Services

The RACINE(S) exhibition is taking place in the Jesuit chapel in Saint-Omer. A symbol of the role played by the town in education from the Renaissance to the Revolution, this building continues this mission of disseminating knowledge by regularly hosting cultural events. The emblematic frieze that runs across the architrave is a sign of this, which continues to this day.

This summer, this majestic site will be the setting for the second instalment of the Art and Industry Triennial. Boldly combining works by Sarah Feuillas, Isabelle Levadoux, Grégoire Motte, the Frac Hauts-de-France and the Musée Sandelin, the RACINE(S) exhibition develops a series of visual narratives around plants.

Isabelle Levadoux is interested in beet growing and the feelings of the people of the Picardy region about her farm, while Grégoire Motte takes a humorous look at another immaculately white agricultural icon of the North: chicory. Sarah Feuillas, meanwhile, appropriates the traditional skills of candle-making to freeze nature.

All these artistic forms are echoed in the term ‘root’. Root is a word with many meanings. It refers both to the part of a plant by which it attaches itself to the soil and feeds itself, and to the deep bond that human beings can feel with a place or with their own kind. The artist, as an observer of our society, has the ability to encode the signs of these links with the earth and to make them travel through this famous time to reach the spectator. With Sarah Feuillas, Isabelle Levadoux and Grégoire Motte, the game seems almost up for grabs, so deeply are their works rooted in local history and culture.