Vidéodrame is the CAPC Bordeaux’s programme dedicated to the moving image. Every two months, an artist’s film is screened on a loop on the museum’s second floor, in a space specially designed by the American artist and essayist Aria Dean. From 29 July to 14 September 2025, Kent Chan is invited to present his film The Fires From the Museum.
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During the summer months, the space that houses Vidéodrame can reach stifling temperatures – at times forcing it to temporarily close. Echoing these heatwaves, Capc invites Singaporean artist Kent Chan (born in 1984, lives and works in Amsterdam) to screen one of his latest films, a continuation of his research into our “overheated futures.”
The film, titled The Fires From the Museum, takes the form of a podcast recording that reflects on a fictional fire that supposedly ravaged the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The podcast features three artists, each of whom shares a personal connection with the tropics: Myriam Omar Awadi, Soñ Gweha, and Kent Chan himself.
The conversation – interspersed with footage documenting an evacuation drill involving artworks and the museum’s fire brigade – explores themes such as migration, the tensions surrounding the presence of works from tropical contexts in Western museum collections, and speculative thoughts on the causes of the museum fire.
As the Centre Pompidou prepares to close its doors at the end of the year for several years of renovation, this speculative endeavour questions the museum’s status and the real role it might play in the decolonisation of knowledge.
