“Blackground: murmures des mornes” [Blackground: Whispers from the Hills] is a group exhibition on display until March 28, 2027, at the CAPC (Centre d’Arts Plastiques Contemporains) in Bordeaux, France. It brings together nearly 50 international artists who explore the traces and legacies of colonial slavery. There are guided tours scheduled for July and August, as well as a variety of related events. Other venues related to this exhibition are Frac MÉCA, Musée d’Aquitaine, Bibliothèque Mériadeck, Zébra3, Archives Bordeaux Métropole. [See full list of artists at the end of this post or at CAPC Bordeaux. Many thanks to Dominique Brebion (Faire mondes) for bringing this item to our attention.]
Description: In recent years, many movements, demands, crises, and debates have emerged as signs that France’s colonization of the territories now called “overseas territories” from the 16th century onward structures the contemporary world—a phenomenon referred to as the “colonial continuum.” This also means that the system of slavery established in these same territories from the 17th century onward, coupled with the development of the “slave trade,” has left deep scars on the land, bodies, and minds, even after its official abolition in 1848. Blackground : Murmures des mornes gathers nearly fifty artists who work with the enduring legacies of colonial slavery.
The practices of the artists gathered in this exhibition seek to expand the forms that memory can take, to highlight and fill the “gaps” in official history, but also to create from gestures and traces of resistance. They start from the premise that the world in which we live cannot be understood without this blackground, this dark background that resists even within the history of domination. Their works lead us to listen to the songs, cries, and whispers that come from the hills, spaces of marronnage, refuge, and community, while simultaneously rejecting the spectacle of violence.
The Blackground : murmures des mornes project unfolds in several stages. First, through a series of exhibitions at the CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux, the FRAC MÉCA, the Mériadeck Library, and the Aquitaine Museum. In these institutions, each group exhibition responds to its specific context: the CAPC explores the concept of the plantation and the monument through its integration into a former colonial goods warehouse; at the FRAC MÉCA, the view of the Garonne River inspires reflection on and through water; at the Mériadeck Library, the writings of Maryse Condé, Angela Davis, and Suzanne Roussi-Césaire form a core of reflection on language; and finally, at the Aquitaine Museum, artworks are integrated into the permanent collection to offer points of departure from the official narrative.
Later in the year, at Zébra3 and then at the Archives of Bordeaux Métropole, artist Simon Gabourg was invited to develop a two-part project based on a reflection on the history of rubber culture, between Guadeloupe, France and Vietnam.
Artists: Annabelle Agbo Godeau, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Tania Arancia Marie, Jordan Beal, Yassine Ben Abdallah, Minia Biabiany, Hannah Black, Shirley Bruno, Kenny Cairo, Chimurenga, Gaëlle Choisne, Julien Creuzet, Danielle Dean, Caroline Deodat, Boz Deseo Garden, Inès Di Folco Jemni, Binta Diaw, Ayoh Kré Duchâtelet, Kenny Dunkan, Lucas Erin, Alexandre Erre, Pap Souleye Fall, Simon Gabourg, Dan Guthrie, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Audrey & Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Rudy Kanhye, Belinda Kazeem-Kaminski, Iris Kensmil, Ligia Lewis, Jota Mombaça, Shaun Motsi, Moye, Nathalie Muchamad, Ina Nian, Josèfa Ntjam, Olu Ogunnaike, Shenece Oretha, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Katrina Palmer, Mathias C. Pfund, Thomias Radin, Noam Rezgui, Xavier Robles De Medina, Fanny Souade Sow, Dominique White.
Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For full article in French, see https://www.capc-bordeaux.fr/agenda/expositions/blackground-murmures-des-mornes
Download pedagogical dossier here.
[Shown above: “Mémoire de la plantation” (2022) by Yassine Ben Abdallah. See https://www.instagram.com/p/DauonwdiK5q/ for more information on the artist. Also see https://www.instagram.com/p/DaxwOwjijTi/.]
“Blackground: murmures des mornes” [Blackground: Whispers from the Hills] is a group exhibition on display until March 28, 2027, at the CAPC (Centre d’Arts Plastiques Contemporains) in Bordeaux, France. It brings together nearly 50 international artists who explore the traces and legacies of colonial slavery. There are guided tours scheduled for July and August, as
