{"id":10236,"date":"2026-11-12T13:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T12:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bordeaux-citytours.com\/?p=10236"},"modified":"2026-11-12T13:52:40","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T12:52:40","slug":"capc-bordeaux-exhibitions-blackground-bircken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bordeaux-citytours.com\/en\/top-picks\/capc-bordeaux-exhibitions-blackground-bircken\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackground and Alexandra Bircken, the two exhibitions to see at the CAPC in Bordeaux this winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of rue Ferr\u00e8re, a stone’s throw from the Chartrons quays, the stone arcades of the Entrep\u00f4t Lain\u00e9 saw sugar, coffee and cocoa from the colonies pass through in the 19th century. Since 11 June 2026, the CAPC museum of contemporary art has been giving voice to that memory with Blackground: murmures des mornes<\/strong>, on view until 28 March 2027. Upstairs, the German artist Alexandra Bircken<\/strong> presents SomaSemaSoma<\/strong> until 3 January 2027. Two exhibitions, one ticket, and one of the most powerful cultural outings of the winter in Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

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At a glance<\/p>\n

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Location<\/strong>CAPC, Entrep\u00f4t Lain\u00e9, 7 rue Ferr\u00e8re, Bordeaux (Chartrons)<\/span><\/div>\n
Blackground<\/strong>11 June 2026 to 28 March 2027<\/span><\/div>\n
SomaSemaSoma<\/strong>12 June 2026 to 3 January 2027<\/span><\/div>\n
Prices<\/strong>\u20ac8 full price, \u20ac4.50 reduced, \u20ac2 for students under 26<\/span><\/div>\n
Opening hours<\/strong>Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm (closed Mondays and public holidays)<\/span><\/div>\n
Getting there<\/strong>Tram B, Capc stop, tram D, Quinconces stop \u00b7 capc-bordeaux.fr<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The venue<\/span><\/p>\n

Why the Entrep\u00f4t Lain\u00e9 is the right place to talk about Bordeaux’s colonial history<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
In short,<\/strong> the CAPC occupies a former warehouse for colonial goods, built in 1824 on the port of Bordeaux. Showing the memories of slavery here means telling that history from inside one of the buildings that profited from it.<\/div>\n

Designed by the engineer Claude Deschamps, who also built the Pont de Pierre, the Entrep\u00f4t Lain\u00e9 was used to store goods arriving from the Caribbean under customs bond before they were sold on. Bordeaux grew rich on this Atlantic trade. Over the 18th and early 19th centuries, the city fitted out around 500 slave-trading voyages. The pale stone fa\u00e7ades of the Chartrons and the place de la Bourse still bear the mark of that wealth.<\/p>\n

Today, the great nave with its brick vaults has housed contemporary art since the 1970s. The building is anything but neutral, and that is exactly what Blackground chooses to confront.<\/p>\n

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Exhibition 1<\/span><\/p>\n

Blackground: murmures des mornes, what you discover at the CAPC<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
In short,<\/strong> a group exhibition of nearly fifty artists on the lasting legacies of colonial slavery, shown at the CAPC until 28 March 2027 and extended to several other venues in Bordeaux.<\/div>\n

The \u201cmornes\u201d are the hills of the Caribbean islands where maroons, enslaved people who had fled the plantations, took refuge. The title states the intention, to listen to the voices of resistance rather than to the story told by the powerful. Conceived by C\u00e9dric Fauq, chief curator of the CAPC, and Salma Mochtari, the exhibition starts from a simple and dizzying idea. The abolition of 1848 did not erase the colonial system, which still marks lands, bodies and minds.<\/p>\n

At the CAPC, the route is organised around the plantation and the monument. Among others, you will see works by Julien Creuzet, Jos\u00e8fa Ntjam, Dominique White and Iris Kensmil. The curators made a clear choice, refusing to make a spectacle of violence and giving space instead to the forms of memory that official history left aside. You come out less overwhelmed than shaken, and keen to look at the quays differently.<\/p>\n

An exhibition that spills beyond the museum walls<\/h3>\n

Blackground continues in other Bordeaux venues, each with its own angle.<\/p>\n