Following on from “Barbe à Papa,” “Air de repos (Breathwork)” enables the Capc to continue its attempts to expand the forms that the museum can take, and to develop the idea of the exhibition as an atmosphere. The primary aim of this new group exhibition project, through a range of artistic interventions (in and around the museum), is to create a renewed awareness of what it means to breathe, not only on an individual level but also on a collective one. At a time when the world is living in a climate of generalised asphyxia, “Air de repos (Breathwork)” aims to transform the museum into a temporary breathing machine.
In recent years, the convergence of political, ecological and public health phenomena has led to the simple act of breathing being seen as a privilege. It has become clear that air pollution has different impacts depending on its social origins, that it is easy to block the airways of certain communities under the pretext of maintaining order (“I Can’t Breathe”), and that the air can become a threat because of the viruses and other harmful agents it can contain.
In a museum, air is a subject in its own right. Displaying and conserving works of art requires special climate control and management. Temperature, humidity and dust particles are monitored. Art therefore needs stable, neutral air. We could even go so far as to use the term ‘pure’. This implies that the museum contains an air of its own, different from that of the rest of the world.
While this raises the question of the “hermetic” quality of the museum, the exhibition makes use of this particularity to imagine the museum as a resting place, a space to breathe differently. This exercise in invention also involves a reflection on the work involved in experiencing art. “Air de repos (Breathwork)” will take account of the dichotomy between leisure and work, raising the question of the amount of effort involved in the aesthetic experience of visiting an exhibition.
Reference to the rest area also brings us back to one of the architectural inspirations of the engineer Claude Deschamps (1765- 1843) in his design of the Lainé warehouses for colonial goods (which today houses the Capc): caravanserais. Vernacular to the Middle East, caravanserais were mainly built along the Silk Road, from the 9th century onwards, to provide merchants and other travellers with places to rest. The symmetry, arches and volumes of the Capc are a direct echo of these buildings. They also served as a point of reference for architect and artist Celeste Burlina in designing her contribution to the exhibition: between architecture and art.
In order to imagine the Capc as a resting place, the exhibition has been conceived as a “museum without images,” to combat retinal fatigue and allow the images to rest. Comprising mainly installations, ready-mades and sound works, the invited artists share the idea that sculpture breathes.
Partipating artists:
Kobby Adi, Pierre Allain, Alvaro Barrington, Celeste Burlina, Rhea Dillon, Adam Farah-Saad, Valérian Goalec, Eva Gold, Jan S. Hansen, Steffani Jemison, Alexandre Khondji, Sin Wai Kin & Sophia Al-Maria, Carolyn Lazard, Brianna Leatherbury Guillaume Maraud, Park McArthur, Jack O’Brien, Olu Ogunnaike, Ima-Abasi Okon, Russell Perkins, Lea Porsager, Cameron Rowland, Cally Spooner, Jesse Stecklow, Sung Tieu, Jessica Vaughn, Abbas Zahedi
Curated by
Cédric Fauq
at Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux
until May 4, 2025