NOTHING BUT THE SEA
Solo exhibitIon by Cyril Sancereau
“I wish there were stable, immobile, intangible places… Such places do not exist, and it is because they do not exist that space becomes a question.” — Georges Perec, Species of Spaces
Valletta Contemporary present Nothing But the Sea, a solo exhibition by Cyril Sancereau featuring video installations and photographic works that explore impermanence, instability, and the conditions of dwelling on an island.
The sea refuses to be fixed. It changes constantly, never the same twice. This exhibition does not document that change but makes it inhabitable. Through photography and video, Sancereau creates spaces where impermanence becomes visible, tangible, liveable. A horizon trembles with the oscillations of the body. A form emerges and dissolves in the reflection of a puddle. Points of light flicker in the dark.
Based in Malta since 2015, Sancereau has developed a rigorous practice centred on a single element: the sea. For over a decade, he has returned repeatedly to the same subject, refusing the temptation to diversify. This is not landscape photography. This is not contemplation. The work begins where certainty ends.
Space is never neutral for those who must constantly adjust, read signs, sense limits. The work starts here: in the necessity of exis;ng where welcome cannot be assumed, and finding, despite this, ways to be alive. Instability is not a problem to solve. It is a condition to inhabit.
Working primarily in black and white and through immersive installations, Sancereau removes colour to refuse geographical or temporal markers. These could be any seas, any shores, any moment. What remains is texture, duration, and the trace of forces too slow or too constant to be witnessed except through sustained attention.
Visitors are invited to move, to drift, to let their perception become uncertain. Perhaps for an instant they will feel that fragility is not a threat.
12–24 December 2025 & 7 January–28 February 2026. Valletta Contemporary, 15, 16, 17 Triq Lvant (East Street), Valletta, Malta
