Inouï Océan, a sublime suffocation

When artistic beauty and the beauty of nature come face to face with human atrocities, the result is the performance presented in Saint-Barthélemy, as part of the Festival Livre et Jazz, by Alexandra Hernandez and Laurent Chauvaud: *Inouï Océan*. Nothing that hasn’t already been said and repeated for years about the effects of human activity on the climate and biodiversity, but presented in a form that is both more graceful and more violent, because it appeals to our most intense emotions.
Starting from the premise that the writings and words of scientists are inaudible, even inaccessible to the general public, author, composer, and performer Alexandra Hernandez and marine biologist Laurent Chauvaud have united art and science in a performance that cannot fail to move the audience. It focuses on the consequences of human activity on the seabed of the islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, where the artist is from. But its resonance is becoming increasingly evident all over the world.
An archipelago as a sentinel
“We brought our two worlds together to tell the story of the sea,” explains Alexandra. “I love the idea of bringing art into oceanography. For Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, the goal was to share with people the life that exists beneath the surface. Today, this show, in all its forms, is traveling. Because the idea is also to use the archipelago as a sentinel, since there is a fierce climate change taking place there, due to ocean currents. The village is shifting, the waters are warming and rising. It’s about showing how life and culture are changing, too.”
For Laurent Chauvaud, it’s about explaining that there aren’t several oceans, but just one. “You have to imagine enormous currents and eddies connecting the South Pole with the North Pole, the Pacific with the Indian Ocean,” he explains. The cold Labrador Current travels thousands of kilometers but battles against a portion of the Gulf Stream that flows northward. In the coming decades, this current will reach the shores of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Everything is connected. Just like the dust from the Sahara that reaches you. ” Alexandra Hernandez adds: “We are inspired by the thought of Edouard Glissant, who says that we are a ‘whole world.’ That is implicit in our approach.”
At the end of the show, in the rows of the Théâtre du Paradis in Gustavia, the audience oscillates between admiration for the beauty of the music, songs, and images, and the overwhelming reality of a sea ravaged by humans. A brutal, almost suffocating realization that the urgency to make changes is very real.

A performance at the ATE
This Thursday at 7:30 p.m., the Territorial Environmental Agency is hosting a performance of the musical conference Inouï Océan at the Gustavia lighthouse. The show is free and open to all.