Why Not Judy Chicago?

We will be celebrating the return of spring in Bordeaux on the occasion of the beginning of a new exciting season at CAPC musée, with the opening of the exhibitions of Judy Chicago, Guan Xiao, Kenneth Anger and the presentation of an impressive collection of artists’ publications.

Why Not Judy Chicago
March 10–September 4, 2016

This first comprehensive exhibition, in France, of Judy Chicago (b. 1939) presents a selection of works and documents providing an overview of over five decades of artistic production by this iconic figure of feminist art. Considering the close relationship between her work as an artist, an art educator and a writer, the exhibition proposes a holistic approach to Chicago’s career.

Judy Chicago belongs to the first generation of women who created a feminist art practice and theory within what is called—in the Americas—the Second Wave of feminism. This generation questions any inherited knowledge as it perpetuates male domination. In this political, social, intellectual and artistic context, Chicago’s career is conceived around notions of deficit and disobedience.

Echoing the feminist maxim, “the personal is political,” the title of the exhibition Why not Judy Chicago? aims towards transcending the dimension of the personal to approach the issue of the (non-)recognition of female, and especially feminist, artists.

Curator: Xabier Arakistain

This exhibition is produced in collaboration with Azkuna Zentroa in Bilbao.
 

Guan Xiao
Weather Forecast
March 10–May 7, 2016

A pivotal point in Guan Xiao’s practice is the idea that everything in the world is permanently transforming. Her three-channel video Weather Forecast visualises the personal change that someone who travels goes through, a process with a volatility that she compares with the fluctuation of the weather. She reflects about the conditions for this change: is a geographic expedition necessary, or would a series of perceptions, experienced while staying in the same place, have the same effect? The introductory work How To Disappear tests the reliability of this experiential cognition in order to prepare the visitor for a sensory immersion.

This exhibition starts the second edition of our annual programme dedicated to emerging artists, Your Ocean, Our Horizon which aims at investigating the concept of oceanic identity. The other artists who will be responding to this curatorial proposal this year are: Edgardo Aragón who will engage with critical cartography, Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin addressing the consequences of historical sea travel and Basim Magdy evoking untold stories of the sea.

Curator: Heidi Ballet

The Satellite programme is co-produced by Jeu de Paume, Paris, F.N.A.G.P. and CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux.


Kenneth Anger
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954–78)
February 4–April 3, 2016 

Our annual programme, devoted to the moving image, The Screen: Soundworks—focusing this year on the relationship between sound and image—opens with the presentation of a work by the legendary figure of American experimental cinema, Kenneth Anger (b. 1927).

Widely celebrated as a cult film, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome unfolds as a succession of juxtaposed and superimposed images that celebrate the Thelama philosophy of the infamous British occultist Aleister Crowley. The film oscillates between a state of dream and a state of trance rendered through the effect of light, rhythm and the accompanying music in order to provide the spectator with a ritual magical experience. The title refers to the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) and Anger asked some of his famous friends to act in the film such as Anaïs Nin and Marjorie Cameron.

Curator: Anne-Sophie Dinant
 

Of Some Artists’ Publications
The collection of the Cdla
February 4–April 30, 2016

The Cdla is an emblematic French institution dedicated exclusively to artists’ publications. It is home to both a permanent exhibition and a collection of over six thousand printed works produced between the end of the 1950s and today.

Conceived around a short text by artist David Bellingham entitled “Basic Forms,” which is a kind of manifesto printed on both sides of a postcard, the current exhibition brings together postcards, invitation cards, posters, books as well as newspapers, brochures, posters or magazines.

With works by some pioneering figures in this field, such as: Paul-Armand Gette, Henri Chopin, Ben Vautier, Jean Le Gac, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Dieter Roth, Maurizio Nannucci, Simon Cutts; and those of the following generation: Claude Rutault, Edmund Kuppel, Lefevre Jean Claude, Mirtha Dermisache, as well as younger artists who follow the line: Eric Watier, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Julien Bismuth and Jean-Jacques Rullier. It presents a collection of works by herman de vries and his considerable publishing activities since the 1960s.

Curator: Didier Mathieu
This exhibition is produced in collaboration with the Cdla — Centre du livre d’artistes of Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche, France

Also on view
Leonor Antunes: the pliable plane
Curator: María Inés Rodríguez

Until April 17, 2016
 

Museum patrons 
Honorary patron
Château Haut-Bailly

Founding patron
Les Amis du CAPC

Leading patrons
Fondation Daniel & Nina Carasso, Lacoste Traiteur

Patrons
SUEZ, Château Chasse-Spleen, SLTE, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Château Haut Selve, Lafarge Granulats, Le Petit Commerce


Press
Pedro Jiménez Morrás
T +33 (0)5 56 00 81 70 / p.jimenezmorras [​at​] mairie-bordeaux.fr