Épopée, Chloé Quenum, 2023-2024

Résine barques + Soundtrack. Produced by Ville de Bordeaux, Zébra 3

Épopée is an immersive installation by Chloé Quenum. It brings together notions of displacement, imagination, narration, sharing, transmission and memory. Resin-covered reproductions of boats stand side by side
with stories in a multitude of languages about travelling on water. Épopée was the subject of an exhibition in Bordeaux in 2023 (Ville de Bordeaux/Zébra3) and then at Piacé le radieux during the 2023 European Heritage Days.

Epic", without an article and in the singular, carries with it a bundle of ambitions in terms of form, both poetic and political. First and foremost, these ambitions for form echo the vocal roots of the epic genre: first and foremost, we will hear voices echoing within the walls of the former municipal archives of the city of Bordeaux. Voices that bear witness to tales of the waters, of navigations, of
fishing, passing through. These are all languages that evoke memories of their relationship with movement across the seas, rivers and oceans, with the common denominator being the boats they used. Chloé Quenum, who often works like an anthropologist-alchemist to break down clear-cut categorisations, was initially interested in the differences and differences between the two languages.
similarities between several types of boat, in different parts of the world. For Épopée, she has assembled a collection of ghost ships that act both as ephemeral receptacles for the stories they tell and as temporary hosts for their listeners. Cédric Fauq