JEAN-MICHEL OTHONIEL

23. 6. — 4. 11. 2012

Parallel to the large summer exhibition Léger – Laurens. Tête-à-Tête, new works by contemporary artist Jean-Michel Othoniel will be shown in a studio exhibition at the Museum Frieder Burda from June 23 to November 4, 2012.

Othoniel’s oversized pearl necklaces and installations made of Murano glass gracefully combine with the architecture in public spaces, seemingly floating weightlessly in trees and exuding an aura full of delicate poetry. The artist has been attracting international attention with his fairytale glass sculptures since the late 1990s and is currently one of France’s most sought-after artists.

In the sculptures and watercolors of the new group of works exhibited in Baden-Baden, Othoniel revolves around the theme of Nœud (knots). Oversized strands of beads made of mirrored colored glass intertwine to form abstract balls of movement. In this cycle the artist combines references to art history with the theory of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacans. In the center of the glass knots a body is created, which is held and formed by the dynamics of the strands, but remains invisible and always unreachable. The viewer feels the concentration and calm inside the Nœuds, yet remains outside, blinded by the reflecting glass beads on the paths of movement around this center.

Also on display is the work L’In Noir, a wall curtain created by Othoniel in 2010 for the opening exhibition of the Centre Pompidou in Metz. Like a delicate web, glass beads connected by thin threads to form a geometric pattern lie on the wall surface over a width of 12 meters. The artist also took the term L’In Noir from Lacan.

From the Frieder Burda Collection, the Collier gris foncé (2011) will also be on display, a 3.50-meter-high chain of dark-gray glass hanging from the ceiling, whose four strands of pearls come to rest on the floor in flowing movements.

The attractive aesthetics of his works are an important instrument for Othoniel to open a dialogue with the viewer, but the iridescent and sparkling is obviously deceptive, since the works in their glittering effect cause a kind of dazzling and thus also blinding of the viewer. Othoniel has always interpreted beauty as an eye-trap, while the works encompass various levels of meaning, ranging from erotic associations to the suggestion of precious materials to the confusion caused by the disproportionate formats.

With the exhibition in Baden-Baden, the work of Jean-Michel Othoniel will be presented in a German museum for the first time.