16.02.24 – 13.04.24

Burdigala, ex vin ad skathos

Bordeaux, from wine to skateboard

Solo exhibition

at Zone Trois Galerie

Solo exhibition by Rom av. JC at Zone Trois Galerie in Bordeaux. The artist shapes Greco-Roman vases, rhytons and kylikes out of broken skateboard decks, painted with scenes of trade and of the wine harvest. 16 February to 13 April 2024.

Press release

In 56 BC the Roman Empire arrived at the gates of Bordeaux, then known as Burdigala, and made it one of its major trading posts. Wheat, copper, Greek ceramics and wine: goods circulated and changed hands inside a busy walled town on the banks of the Garonne.

In this exhibition, “Burdigala, ex vin ad skathos” — “Bordeaux, from wine to skateboard” — Rom av. JC imagines and reinterprets the antique ceramics that might have passed through Bordeaux in that period. In the artist’s alternate history, the vases and jars are made from skateboard wood, found cracked, broken or reassembled, echoing archaeological finds. They carry scenes of trade and of wine celebrations, along with nods to the artist’s own chosen medium.

A skater above all since childhood, his practice is built on collecting broken skateboard decks, which he shapes into rhytons, kylikes and other vessels of Greco-Roman inspiration.

An exhibition supported by Château Desmirail.