Exhibition guide
Through an unprecedented body of work devoted to the Great Lakes basin, Canadian photographer Robert Burley explores this immense territory, at once a border, a place of life, a space of exchange and a zone of vulnerability.
Visit details
- Dates: From Saturday June 6, 2026 to Friday November 13, 2026:
- Venue: Centre culturel canadien à Paris, 130 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris
- Price: free
- Audience: All audiences
- Source: Event page
About the exhibition
Opening on June 6, 2026, as part of Nuit Blanche
Spanning the border between Canada and the United States, the
making the Great Lakes basin disappear in its colossal fluid mass
brings together millions of inhabitants around its perimeter, including
Indigenous people from many First Nations and tribes. Extraordinary resource
of surface drinking water (among the largest in the world); place of
circulation and exchange, commerce, work, leisure, travel,
meditation, but also exploitation, danger, vulnerability; this immense
basin was observed from the diversity of its banks by Robert Burley, one
of the most important Canadian photographers of our time.
The artist creates here such an unprecedented body of work
exceptional, where the grandiose beauty of this elusive whole, sometimes
soothing, sometimes disturbing, transforms into a reflection on the power
of the contemporary image. Stripped of any anecdotal diversion, referring
the Great Lakes at their prime, the photographs of Robert Burley
call the viewer like captivating sirens.
In partnership with Biinaagami, Swim Drink Fish and Canadian Geographic
This project is labeled Bicentenary of Photography by
the Ministry of Culture and is part of the official programming of the
Bicentennial from September 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027.
Curator: Catherine Bédard