The Capc Musée d’art Contemporain in Bordeaux is inviting its public to consider the inside of its storied building as a “breathing space”—a haven away from a world suffocated by air pollution, pandemics, capitalism and surveillance. Bringing together works by a generation of artists largely hailing from the UK and the US, Air de repos (Breathwork) will reflect on the simple act of breathing as both a political and poetic act.
One of the inspirations for the show was Franco “Bifo” Berardi’s essay Breathing: Chaos and Poetry (2018), in which he asserts the power of poetic thinking to lead us out of the asphyxia of financial capitalism (the French translation is being published to coincide with the show).
“It’s an exhibition with a political view, but at the same time it’s a very poetic project,” says the curator, Cédric Fauq. “There’s a tendency to focus on the political subject matter of some of these practices, but I wanted to highlight the formal and poetic questioning underpinning them—and Bifo’s book gave me the framework to do that.”
Presented as “a museum without images”, the show will put an emphasis on the senses—Adam Farah-Saad has notably developed a smell for the space with a scent expert—as well as sculpture with a strong conceptualist streak and political undertones. Among these will be readymades such as Carolyn Lazard’s series of air purifiers, installed under the title Privatization (2020); Sung Tieu’s use of prison furniture in her installation Parkstück (2018); the fallen blades of a wind turbine, which Lea Porsager has sliced up and contorted (H.O.L.Y. S.P.I.R.I.T., 2024); Alexandre Khondji’s Dams (2024), made from flood barriers; and a new piece by Cameron Rowland that recreates a scent-detection training wall for police dogs.
Some gestures will be almost imperceptible, such as Brianna Leatherbury’s Legacy Market (2024), which allows visitors to use a DNA spray (the kind used to track burglars) that will only become visible under the UV lights installed in the museum’s restrooms. Elsewhere, Valérian Goalec presents a cryptic intervention in which he will inscribe the total weight of the exhibited works somewhere on the building’s facade, in lieu of an exhibition poster.
“We’re so used to pulling out our phones the moment something grabs our attention; it’s a habit I also find hard to break,” Fauq says. “Here the focus will be on the body, and on experiences that are very difficult to capture in an image.”
• Air de Repos (Breathwork), Capc Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux, 15 November-4 May 2025
