Kent Chan
The Fires From the Museum, 2025
Single-channel video, FHD, duration: 28’30
Courtesy of the artist

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.
 

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Vidéodrame
Every two months, an artist is invited to present a work, with no restrictions on duration, subject or genre. Artist and essayist Aria Dean was invited to design the architectural setting for this programme. She had the walls and floors carpeted in a red fabric typical of that found in cinemas, and also devised a lighting scheme for the corridor leading to the screening room.

Programmation 2025
• Caroline Poggi et Jonathan Vinel, La fille qui explose (2022) – from 4th March to 4th May 2025
• Mona Varichon, Corps à cor, Le film, 2025 – from 6th May to 6th July 2025
• Kent Chan, The Fires From the Museum, 2025 - from 29th July to 14th September 2025