In the 1980s, the submarine base was a cold, damp and gloomy building: a testimony to the Nazi occupation, marked by the brutal appearance of the reinforced concrete. In 2023, on the other hand, it was the most visited site in Bordeaux and the second in Gironde: more than 800,000 entries to the Bassins des Lumières, in the four alcoves allocated to the Culturespaces company to project reproductions of works by art on 12,000 square meters of surface area. Did you say “success story”?
The submarine base in 2004. The place came under the management of Danièle Martinez in 2000.
Stéphane Lartigue
“Today, we have visitors from Toulouse or La Rochelle who come specifically to Bordeaux for the Bassins des Lumières,” rejoices Humbert Vuatrin, director of the place. However, we would not have believed it at the turn of the century, after an international yachting conservatory, opened in 1993, closed its doors in 1997, for lack of an audience.
The one who relaunched this 41,000 m² site is called Danièle Martinez. In 2000, this former director of the Pessac Book Fair, then Bordeaux, was bombed as director of the submarine base. “She understood that it was an indestructible place, and that to do something with it, you had to rely on art,” explains Pascale Dewambrechies, co-author of a book that pays tribute to her.
Archives Guillaume Bonnaud / SO
Danièle Martinez: “She understood that it was an indestructible place, and that to make something of it you had to rely on art. »
Danièle Martinez multiplies the exhibitions of renowned artists – Georges Rousse, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Yann Arthus-Bertrand… – or on themes like May 1968, insisting that access remains free. With music critic Philippe Méziat, she also launched the Jazz à la base festival, where we will see Martial Solal, Ibrahim Maalouf, etc. And she opened the place to a historic DJ set by Laurent Garnier in 2004.
In short, it brings an audience to this sector of wet basins which then appeared to be the end of the world. Then, close to retirement and ill, she had the foresight to prepare for the future by bringing Alain Juppé to Carrières de Lumières, in Baux-de-Provence, the first site managed by Culturespaces, which today has around ten.
Archives Claude Petit / SO
2018: Alain Juppé and Bruno Monnier, general director of Culturespaces, sign a public service delegation contract for the operation of the first four alcoves of the base.
This subsidiary of Engie (at the time) invested 15 million euros in the development of its four alcoves. And it is in a clean and comfortable space that the Bassins des Lumières opened in June 2020. We are still immersed in Covid, yet the success is immediate, with peaks for programs on Dali, Tintin or Dutch painters. In 2024, three quarters of visitors are from outside the Bordeaux area and 25% come from abroad.
“The Bassins des Lumières are part of a new cultural offering to the north of the city, more modern, more focused on digital technologies, along with the Mer Marine Museum, the Cité du vin or Cap Sciences,” analyzes Dimitri Boutleux, deputy director of culture. They make it possible to balance practices. » While waiting to see what will happen in the adjoining 500 m² room, which the City still manages. Two associations, Dé-Zip and Le Grand Incendie, set up there in the fall, with the mission of developing projects “that mix art and social issues”.
