Xynthia les objets de la mémoire | collection of testimonies of victims of storm Xynthia reworked into a sound piece (52min28),
“– La Faute was a paradise on Earth […]
– We saw the water coming, it rose very quickly, up to 2.4 metres, leaving little room to breathe […]
– It felt like the end of the world.”
— Transcribed excerpt from the sound piece
Xynthia, les objets de la mémoire conveys the experiences of those affected by the February 2010 sea flooding. It offers a space for reflection on how communities rebuild themselves after such a disaster. The collection of their stories keeps the memory of Xynthia alive. This work anchors these testimonies in the collective imagination and mobilises resilience in the construction of a ‘modern legend’.
This work is created by the artist duo Samuel Buckman and Mathias Arrignon as part of the project Submersion et résilience, la mémoire de Xynthia (Submersion and Resilience, the Memory of Xynthia), a multidisciplinary initiative led by Cronos CIC, a collective of scientific and cultural partners supported by the Fondation de France.
This work will be exhibited from 10 October 2025 to 12 December 2025 at the Centre Intermondes in La Rochelle. For 15 years, objects and memories of Storm Xynthia have been preserved by the victims of La Faute-sur-Mer. Displayed in an altar-shaped installation, these objects are accompanied by works of art specially designed to echo Xynthia.
A sound piece created by Mathias Arrignon broadcasts the voices of the victims around this refined and sensitive scenography. The exhibition’s sound track is based on a montage of testimonials from around twenty people affected by Xynthia, with quadraphonic sound adapted to the acoustics of the exhibition venue. More than just simple accompaniment, it invites listeners to engage with a human-scale narrative, carried by a slow and measured listening experience, similar to word of mouth. This sound installation offers a polyphony of voices, those of the disaster victims, where each person’s story resonates with the others, revealing the social and collective dimensions that emerged after the storm of 2010. The silences, hesitations and breaths play an essential role: they convey the emotion and authenticity of the memory, as well as the 15 years that have passed, and become sound material in themselves. Through a play of emergence and disappearance, the voices oscillate between proximity and distance, between tension and calm. For 52 minutes, this soundtrack serves as an anchor for memory, highlighting the emotional value of the surviving objects, connecting places and experiences to their echoes, and visitors to an intimate experience of shared resilience.
private audio streaming link (in French) on request