"Strange Fruit" is a bronze memorial sculpture by Venetian artist Jaume Plensa, installed on the Quai des Chartrons along the Garonne riverfront. The piece takes its title from the Billie Holiday song — itself a reference to lynching — and consists of a human figure curled within a sphere of letters spelling the names of enslaved people recorded in Bordeaux's shipping records.
The memorial is not monumental or easy to miss — it is contemplative and requires you to slow down and read the names. It stands a short walk north of Place de la Bourse along the same waterfront promenade. The combination of elegant 18th-century facades and this memorial gives the Bordeaux waterfront a complexity it needs.