jean-michel othoniel in conversation
with executive director peter doroshenko
Jean-Michel Othoniel in front of The Beautiful Dances, in the Water Theater grove of Versailles, 2015. Photo: Philippe Chancel
What does your creative world look like during the Coronavirus pandemic?
In France we are in quarantine since 45 days now, so the situation changed a lot during those weeks.
At the beginning I had to close the big studio with more than 10 assistants working for me. It was really hard but we found a solution and they all work from home now. Then I was totally depressed during 2 weeks receiving the blast of this historical moment, and after this period of solemnity I started again to draw projects in my home studio dreaming of sculptures for a better world.
Overall, does literature, mathematics, and science influence your thinking?
Poetry and Mathematics are really part of my work. Poetry open my work to beauty. It’s been 6 years now that I am working on series of sculptures with the complicity of a Mexican Mathematician. The concept of endless forms characterized by infinite reflecting images takes form in my knots sculptures. I will do a big retrospective exhibition of this body of work in Montreal next fall.
What projects have you been involved with recently?
I am working on a new series of paintings following the ones I installed permanently at the Louvre recently. Using ink on white gold leaves, I take inspiration from flowers to do abstract paintings. Otherwise I am thinking a lot about the future and how to create an active space of knowledge. I am building a new studio that I will open to small groups of art lovers, it will be a platform opened to different communities created to engage people with art and education.
How has your work changed over the last five years and why?
It’s been 10 years now that I am working around the idea of beauty and tried to re-enchant the world through my work. Creating installations that are mixing different feelings like beauty and darkness, hope and joy. Today it is more important than ever, so I will continue to go on and to do what I can do.
Jean-Michel Othoniel, The Kiosk of the nightwalkers, 2000. A permanent installation for the métro station Palais-Royal – Musée du Louvre, Paris. Photo: Jean-François Mauboussin
Jean-Michel Othoniel, The Beautiful Dances, Versailles 2015, The Entrance of Apollo (detail). Fountain sculptures for the Water Theater grove, Gardens of the Palace of Versailles. Photo: Philippe Chancel
Jean-Michel Othoniel, La rose du Louvre, 2019. 6 paintings on canvas, ink on white gold leaf. Installation in Puget courtyard, Louvre Museum. © Claire Dorn.
Jean-Michel Othoniel, La Rose des Vents, 2014, aluminium, steel, gold leaf. View of the artwork in front of the Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 2015. Photo : Galerie Perrotin
Jean-Michel Othoniel, The Big Wave (detail), 2018. Indian black glass bricks, metal. Photo : Charlotte Piérot. © ADAGP, Paris 2019.
Jean-Michel Othoniel, Agora, 2019. Courtesy Galerie Perrotin Photo: Claire Dorn.
Jean-Michel Othoniel, ALFA, 2019. ©Othoniel Studio / Martin Argyroglo.
about jean-michel othoniel
Jean-Michel Othoniel was born in Saint-Étienne, 1964. Othoniel graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts in Cergy-Pontoise. He first gained international attention for his sculptures exhibited at documenta 9, Kassel, Germany, 1992. Over the years, Othoniel has had various solo exhibitions, including: at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, 2019; Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Etienne, France, 2018; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Canada, 2018; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 2015; Brooklyn Museum, New York, 2012; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, 2012; and Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris, France, 2011. His works are also part of the permanent collections of institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; the New York Public Library; and the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France. He lives and works in Paris, France.