Series produced as a follow-up to the first work, ‘Naufragés I,’ created during a workshop in Cotonou (Benin) with artist Ludovic Fadairo in August 2018.

Installed facing the sea, looking at the fishermen's canoes: on the other side of the ocean, are they not also dramatic witnesses to crossings to Europe, fragile boats leading to so many shipwrecks, scattered wrecks, leaving behind nameless, anonymous faces in search of a better life?

These series, Shipwrecks, Wrecks and Anonymous, an expression of the human drama that our world is going through, are a tribute to all those missing migrants so that they do not sink into the depths of oblivion.

«In its continuity, the work reveals a kinship with Arte Povera. From being "insignificant", the objects become "significant". In a silent dramaturgy, the artist speaks to us of the human drama of maritime emigration. What can we say about the implacable contrast in terminis of the word 'flamboyant', the fruit so close in form to the modest pirogue? Or the greyish blue-green of some shattered metal sheets, the remains of a shipwreck? A shipwreck, no doubt, of illusions born in a society in distress."

Michel Van Lierde, July 2016.

© Ariane Bosquet 2025