Crabe Chorus

Curator : Vanessa Desclaux

The CEAAC, in partnership with the Musica festival, presents Crabe Chorus, a solo exhibition by artist Violaine Lochu and curated by Vanessa Desclaux.

Designed as the second chapter in a programme exploring public health issues, the exhibition occupies the entire art centre. Taking its title from a body of work created in 2023, Crabe Chorus brings together pieces produced between 2018 and 2026, including a major new body of work developed in Strasbourg specifically for the CEAAC in collaboration with local volunteers.

Violaine Lochu’s practice encompasses a wide variety of media: performance, drawing, video, sound works and photography, which interact within immersive installations. The works gathered at the CEAAC reflect the artist’s distinct journey through the experience of cancer, approached both from an intimate perspective and through the collective voices of those affected by the illness.

In Strasbourg, through a partnership with two oncology care providers – the oncology department at Clinique Sainte Anne and Strasbourg Oncologie Libérale (SOL) – alongside an open call shared by the Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR), the artist engaged in dialogue with patients, caregivers and healthcare staff through individual interviews and group sessions. Outside of the medical setting, discussions and workshops focusing on the body and voice – hosted by the CEAAC and Théâtre Jeune Public (TJP) – furthered these encounters. This collaborative process culminated in a collective performance centred on the concept of protection, activated during the exhibition opening.

Here, the exhibition invokes the motif of the chorus: an ensemble uniting a plurality of members and a multiplicity of voices, resisting the urge to reduce the experience of illness to an isolated ordeal or a purely medical concern. Crabe Chorus offers a multifaceted, sensitive and political reflection on cancer and its unfolding temporalities, situated along the thresholds between conventional notions of health and illness.

As part of her collaboration with the Musica festival, Violaine Lochu will also present the premiere of Aman silaT #chants de protection, a vocal trio performed by Amal Allaoui, Élie Guillou and Violaine Lochu – all three personally impacted by cancer as patients or caregivers. This performance will take place during Musica at the HEAR performance space on Tuesday 29 September 2026.