Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa: Linnaeus in Tenebris / Oscar Murillo: Estructuras resonantes

This spring, CAPC is proud to present in Bordeaux, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa’s first solo show in France with a large-scale site-specific installation for the Nave of the museum, and Oscar Murillo’s Estructuras resonantes, the second installment of the exhibition cycle The Economy of Living Things, curated by Osei Bonsu for the tenth anniversary edition of the Satellite Programme.

Naufus Rámirez-Figueroa: Linnaeus in Tenebris
For his first solo show in France, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (born in Guatemala City, lives and works in Berlin) taps into science fiction and biotechnology to address a recurrent subject in his sculptures and performances, namely, the suffering of the land and of the people who farm it.

Linnæus in Tenebris, a site-specific installation and performance* in the Nave of CAPC, is set in the historic context of the eighteenth century, an era that still dominates Bordeaux’s architectural landscape. The work focuses on an emblematic figure of rationalism, Carl von Linné (1707–78), the Swedish botanist who created the nomenclature for the classification of most living species known in his time. More broadly, Ramírez-Figueroa examines the taxonomical practices that were developed during the scientific (notably botanical) expeditions undertaken in the wake of western colonization at the time of the Enlightenment. By linking their inherent conceptual bias to the logic of ethnic hierarchization underpinning the division of labor and the spread of industrialization – specifically in the realm of agriculture in Central America, and Guatemala in particular, under the impulse of multinational companies employing migrant laborers – he underlines their alienating potential.

At CAPC, the artist thrusts visitors into the cold and bleak atmosphere of a breeding farm where strange hybrid creatures are grown on an industrial scale. The half-human, half-plant-like sculptures populating the Nave – bunches of bananas with protruding arms and legs, a cocoa-tree-hangman, Monstera deliciosa or other species of suspiciously lush plants, an androgynous-yucca-plant and a plant-pod-midget – are simultaneously fascinating and puzzling. Made of polystyrene covered in resin, they affirm their artificiality and question the moral foundations of “enlightened” culture by exposing the crimes committed in the shadow of Linnaeus.

*Linnæus in Tenebris (text: Wingston González) is part of a series of performances by Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa commissioned and produced by Corpus, European network for performance practice. Corpus is Bulegoa z/b (Bilbao), CAC (Vilnius), KW (Berlin), If I Can’t Dance (Amsterdam), Playground (STUK & M, Louvain) and Tate Modern (London). Corpus is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

Curator: Alice Motard
This exhibition receives the exceptional support of our honorary patron, Château Haut-Bailly

Oscar Murillo: Estructuras resonantes
Oscar Murillo works across a variety of media, combining painting, sculpture and video to form immersive installations composed of a variety of materials. As opposed to working within a specific spatial environment, his work evolves from a far ranging practice that includes public interventions, community-based collaborations and performance.

Filmed in Marrakech, Morocco, Untitled (2017), shows North African Bedouin Arabs absorbed in the improvisation of sounds, music and dancing. The work captures the immediate impact of live music as a form of civic engagement transcending cultural boundaries. Aesthetic absorption and rupture operate a mode of connection in which the spectator is also caught. This video forms part of an interconnected display of works entitled Estructuras resonantes, a meditation on the artist’s family background and history.

The Economy of Living Things is an exhibition cycle concerned with the constant movement of bodies, plants, animals, artefacts and other cultural products across real and imagined borders. Moving beyond the notion of mapping history, new commissions of Ali Cherri, Oscar Murillo, Steffani Jemison and Jumana Manna will travel through unknown and familiar spaces to render visible the undocumented journeys undertaken by living things.

Curator: Osei Bonsu
The Satellite programme is co-produced by Jeu de Paume, Paris, FNAGP and CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux.
Exhibition organized as part of The Year France-Colombia 2017.

Also on view
BEAU GESTE PRESS
Curator: Alice Motard
Until May 28, 2017

[sic] works from the CAPC Collection
Curator: José Luis Blondet
Permanent exhibition

Upcoming
4.543 billion. The matter of matter
Curated by Latitudes
June 29, 2017–January 7, 2018
As part of the cultural season Paysages Bordeaux 2017

Our Visual Identities. Bordeaux-Paris, Paris-Bordeaux
Curator: Martine Péan
June 29–September 24, 2017
As part of 40 ans-40 lieux, Centre Pompidou 40th anniversary programme

Beatriz González
Curator: María Inés Rodríguez
Retrospective exhibition organized by CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.
November 23, 2017–February 25, 2018
Exhibition organized as part of The Year France-Colombia 2017.

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 patrons: Fondation Daniel & Nina Carasso, Lacoste Traiteur
Patrons: SUEZ, Mercure Bordeaux Cité Mondiale, Château Chasse-Spleen, SLTE, Château Le Bonnat, Le Petit Commerce

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