Jean-Michel Othoniel donates two works to the city of Avignon

Six months in the city of the popes. As Jean-Michel Othoniel’s long stay in Avignon, through an ambitious exhibition, draws to a close, the city announces that the artist’s colored glass will continue to stand out against the city’s blond walls. The popular contemporary artist is donating two of his works created for the occasion.

It is, first of all, Wonder Blocks. Six blocks of embedded bricks which stand in the niches of the XVII facade^e century of the lapidary museum, the former Jesuit church and annex of the Calvet museum, which houses archaeological collections. These sculptures, which echo ancient altars and funerary steles, are visible from the central and busy Rue de la République.

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At the installation of Jean-Michel Othoniel, still a green academician, under the Dome

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50 semi-trailers

The second work, entitled Fountain of Delightsis grafted onto a fountain commissioned in 1345 by Clement VI and located in the gardens of the Palais des Papes. This installation, in blown Murano glass and gilded bronze, is one of the 260 works that have adorned Avignon over the last six months as part of the exhibition Cosmos or the Ghosts of Love and available in the city’s museums. From the natural history museum to the Lambert Collection. It will end on January 6.

“When the mayor, Cécile Helle, suggested that I invest in all the museums to mark the 25th anniversary of Avignon as the European capital of culture and the 30th anniversary of its inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list, I looked for the common thread of a narrative. These are not ten small exhibitions, but one large exhibition which is expressed according to each place, each architecture, each collection”confided the sixty-year-old to Figaroat the moment of the firing of this colorful programming. Some 50 semi-trailers were needed to transport, from Othoniel’s Ile-de-France studio, the materials intended to renovate Avignon.

A trace in the landscape

“He suggested that we leave a mark by donating two works (…) He was very keen that one of the two be visible in the public space, like the Wonder Blocks. This double donation would be a plus for the city and its historical heritage”welcomed Cécile Helle in the municipal council, Saturday December 20. The donation was unanimously approved.

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Jean-Michel Othoniel from one garden to another

The works of Jean-Michel Othoniel have taken on a castle life in recent years, with stations at the Petit Palais, in Paris, or at the Ideal Palace of Facteur Cheval, in Hauterives. With this donation, the Stéphanois leaves another lasting trace of his work in the city, twenty-five years later The Night Owls Kioskwhich transformed the Parisian metro station Palais-Royal, in front of the Comédie-Française. Symbol and gateway to its theater of wonder.