Thèbes
March 8–September 2, 2018
DICTA
February 13–May 6, 2018
Bordeaux
France
The exciting 2018 programme of the CAPC continues in March with a major solo show by the French artist Benoît Maire, including a wide range of new works specially commissioned for the occasion, and Damir Očko’s screening of Dicta II, curated by Agnès Violeau for this year’s Satellite programme, co-produced with Jeu de Paume in Paris and now also with Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico.
In April, as part of the The Screen programme, curated by Anne-Sophie Dinant, the museum will present Babette Mangolte’s filmic installations Roof Piece (1973/2017) and Roof Piece on the High Line (2012) along with a retrospective of her films and a unique masterclass with the artist.
Following the site-specific projects recently created by Leonor Antunes, Rosa Barba or Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa for the inspiring Nave of the museum, we are proud to invite, next May, Danh Vo to conceive a large-scale sculptural project for this emblematic and monumental space.
Benoît Maire: Thèbes
The exhibition, which features almost 80 works ranging from paintings and sculptures to furniture, everyday objects and films, heralds a new chapter for the French artist, whose creations, situated at the confluence of art and philosophy, stem from the plastic materialization of his aesthetic theories. A recurring theme in this show is the question of the origin of Man and the objects he produces or which surround him. It owes its title, Thèbes, to the Greek city renowned in mythology for its Sphinx, whose riddles held the terrified inhabitants hostage. The artist’s project is based on an analogy between the city and the exhibition, both victims of a puzzle they are unable to resolve. An assemblage of three series—”Cloud Paintings,” “War Newspapers” and “Castles”—comprising new works for the most part, Thèbes aims to tackle the ambient sense of disquiet and danger menacing a society weighed down by perpetual self-questioning.
The first signature monograph on Benoît Maire, designed by the London-based studio Åbäke, is being published to coincide with the exhibition. It covers nearly fifteen years of the artist’s career and includes critical reviews by Mieke Bal and Magali Nachtergael, together with a visual essay by Vincent Honoré and an interview conducted by Rahma Khazam.
Curator: Alice Motard
Exhibition design: Benoît Maire with Marie Corbin
Damir Očko: DICTA
Damir Očko was born in 1977 in Zagreb (Croatia), where he lives and works. His work explores the way power or subjection are generated through language. Dicta is the plural of the Latin word dictum, meaning an authoritative statement, and which can also be translated as “proverb.”
Dicta I conveys language in its rhetorical form, and the possible combination of truth and trickery. Dicta II offers an approach to language centred on “safewords,” an oral code agreed in advance between participants in a dominant-submissive consensual relationship. The “safeword” signals a boundary not to be crossed. Using a selection of these code words garnered from various sado-masochist forums, the film features a mixed martial arts fight (MMA), punctuated by these words. Recited without any exact language structure, they eventually become a litany evocative of a Dadaist poem. For Aristotle, language was an instrument that enables us to relate to reality through knowledge. When words lose their function, language is nothing more than parade.
The NEWSPEAK_ cycle is an attempt to create a cosmogony of language, a form of resistance through language and exhibition.
Curator: Agnès Violeau
The Satellite Programme is co-produced by Jeu de Paume, Paris; CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux and Museo Amparo, Puebla.
Also on view
[sic] works from the CAPC Collection, 2nd Instalment
A selection of works by more than 40 artists from the 1960s to nowadays.
Curator: José Luis Blondet
Permanent exhibition
Upcoming
Babette Mangolte: Roof Piece (1973/2017) and Roof Piece on the High Line (2012)
Curator: Anne-Sophie Dinant
April 4–8, 2018
Danh Vo
Curator: María Inés Rodríguez
May 17–October 7, 2018
The Satellite Programme 2018: NEWSPEAK_ will continue with two other commissions.
Curator: Agnès Violeau
Daphné Le Sergent: Geopolitics of Oblivion
May 17–September 30, 2018
Alejandro Cesarco
October 11, 2018–January 6, 2019
The CAPC musée d’art contemporain is a museum of the City of Bordeaux.
Museum patrons
Honorary patron: Château Haut-Bailly
Founding patron: Les Amis du CAPC
Leading patron: Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso, Lacoste Traiteur
Patrons: SUEZ, Mercure Bordeaux Cité Mondiale, Château Chasse-Spleen, Château Le Bonnat, Le Petit Commerce
Press
Pedro Jiménez Morrás
T +33 (0)5 56 00 81 70 / p.jimenezmorras@mairie-bordeaux.fr
