Ephemeral Sand Sculptures on Salou Beach – Arnaud Quercy

Ephemeral Sand Sculptures on Salou Beach – Arnaud Quercy An open-air exhibition on Salou Beach, August 2022 In the heart of summer, amidst the sun-drenched shores of Salou, artist Arnaud Quercy transformed a stretch of beach into a living gallery. For five consecutive days, the coastline became his studio, the sand his medium, and the rhythm of the sea his silent collaborator. With bare hands and a sculptor’s precision, he shaped ephemeral bas-reliefs that paid homage to the twin forces that shape his creative world: jazz and journeys. Jazz Icons – Echoes in the Sand Two monumental reliefs, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, emerged from the sand like fleeting visions of sound. Through sharp contours and abstract gestures, Quercy captured the improvisational soul of jazz. Each 150 x 120 cm piece translated the dissonance, rhythm, and elegance of these musical titans into sculptural form—brief monuments to harmony and chaos. Created in the span of a single afternoon, they were destined to dissolve into the tide, like the last note of a solo fading into the night. The Spirit of Travel – Sculptures of the Inner Journey In a more introspective tone, Quercy’s second trio—The Woman Reading, The Sailer, and The Traveler—invited passersby to contemplate movement, solitude, and discovery. One moment captures stillness: a woman lost in a book. Another reverses perspective: an abstract form that, when flipped in the mind’s eye, becomes a fleet of boats. And in The Traveler, a solitary figure gazes outward, reflecting the inward search that accompanies every outward voyage. Each work echoed a different aspect of travel—its mystery, its introspection, its sense of transformation. Creation as Performance, Impermanence as Meaning Carved directly into the sand, every sculpture was at once a performance and a meditation. None survived the tides. Each piece lived briefly—until seawater, wind, or curious footsteps erased it. But in that impermanence lay its power: the reminder that beauty, like a memory or a jazz improvisation, is most alive when it cannot last. A Collective Experience Tourists and locals alike paused their day to witness these transient artworks. Some took photos, others exchanged reflections with the artist, and many simply watched, caught in the quiet moment where art and nature intersect. Quercy’s beach became not just an exhibition, but a space of shared presence—art experienced in real time, in the open air, and in community. A Trace in the Tide Though the sculptures are gone, their presence lingers—in photographs, in conversation, and in the minds of those who wandered across them. In Éphémères de Salou, Arnaud Quercy offered a brief, glowing testament to the possibility of poetry in the everyday: a beach turned gallery, a moment turned memory, a sculpture turned wave.