Photographer and textile artist Vanessa Gilles has long had a deep bond with this community. Her sensitive eye captures the power of the ex-votos offered to Sara: rosaries, crosses, multicolored capes… So many testimonies to a living faith, combining intimate memory and collective spirituality.
The exhibition explores Sara’s origins and the many stories surrounding her, between oral legend and written tradition: was she in the boat of the Saintes Maries or the one that welcomed them ashore? Echoing this mythical crossing, Sara’s cloak floats like a guide over the Mediterranean waters, a symbol of protection and rebirth.
Presented as textile shrines, the life-size silk prints are based on the ceremonial cloaks used in the May 24 procession, entrusted to us by the church of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. These contemporary relics, a cross between photography and sacred art, are accompanied by portraits of Gypsy women and children immersed in the ritual waters of the beach.
Through this installation, Vanessa Gilles questions the collective memory of the Gypsy people,
the transmission of stories and the sacred link between water, faith and exile.
