Lorient hides its tracks with its exhibition devoted to dazzle painting, a camouflage technique developed during the First World War by the British and American armies. History and contemporary art meet cross paths with the submarine Flore to illustrate this unusual technique. Until 6 January 2019.

Paintings

In response to the ravages caused in the Atlantic by German submarines, the British developed a means to protect from submarines the ships supplying Europe at war and avoid their being torpedoed. The British Lusitania, torpedoed May 7, 1915 with 1200 people on board hit a nerve. From 1917 on, the hulls of boats were bathed in bright colors: Cubist drawings, olive green, gray, blue, pink, black and white break the shape of the ship and create a trompe l'oeil. This dazzle painting, which has no translation into French, misleads the enemy by blurring the tracks.

Low cost for effective deterrence

4000 transport ships, including 1500 in France and 400 warships make use of this major technique invented by the British officer Norman Wilkinson. An optical illusion known as “disruptive”, due to the modification of broken or interrupted lines. The enemy is hard pressed to launch torpedoes that have no automatic guidance. The officer estimating distance, speed and direction of the target to be shot has a minute on the surface. The elusive geometry of the ship and its changing colors blur the identification with the periscope and the position of the enemy is blurred across the board!

Elsa offers a dazzle to Flore

The artist Elsa Tomkowiak adapts the dazzle painting technique as she makes her mark on the submarine S-645. The visual artist based in Douarnenez is fond of multicolored immersive installations. She stretches bright canvases on the fuselage of the military machine to create an unreal and ephemeral painting. The Flore sets sail in an imaginary world and loses sight of the dock as it is carried by the winds of change.

The exhibition retraces the dazzle sections of the different navies and draws an exhaustive fresco of this technique rendered obsolete during the second world war with the invention of the radar. Although the tactical effectiveness of this lure has not been established with certainty, it had the clear advantage of lifting the morale of the troops, who felt reassured on a colorfully camouflaged ship.

Also see:

-The 4th NAVEXPO show will drop anchor in Lorient-la-Base from March 28th to 30th, 2019

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