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| A view of French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel's solo exhibition, "Jean-Michel Othoniel: Treasure Garden," shows the 26-meter-long "Blue River" (2022) stretched on the first floor of the Seoul Museum of Art in central Seoul. The installation hanging above is the artist's iconic beaded knot series. Courtesy of CJY Art Studio, SeMA |
'Treasure Garden' at SeMA, Deoksu Palace looks back on French artist's past decade of oeuvre
By Park Han-sol
A ferociously glistening, azure river has unfurled itself on the first floor of the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA). The museum in central Seoul has not become a victim of summertime flooding.
The 26-meter-long riverbed ― bedecked with 7,500 aquamarine-hued glass bricks made by master glassblowers in Firozabad, India ― is Jean-Michel Othoniel's latest step towards achieving his vision of "re-enchanting" the world as an artist.
The renowned French creator, whom The New York Times dubbed "the master manipulator of glass," is best known for the multihued sculptures of glass beads that have occupied historic sites like the gardens of the Palace of Versailles and the entrance of the Palais Royal-Musee du Louvre metro station in Paris.
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| French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, also known as "the master of glass." / Courtesy of CJY Art Studio, SeMA |
"It's an exhibition, where you can see how my mind was working during the last 10 years and where I want to go from here," the 58-year-old told The Korea Times in a recent interview.
Accordingly, inside the museum, above the large carpet of blue bricks ("Blue River") hangs his iconic beaded knot series made of mirrored glass and stainless steel, including "Lacan's Knot" and "Wild Knot," to which he has devoted the past decade of his life and further formulated with the help of Mexican mathematician Aubin Arroyo.
The endlessly repeated reflections of viewers and their surroundings that appear on each of the entwined bead's mirrored surfaces visualize the notion of infinity ― and in a way, a poetic depiction of the universe.
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| Jean-Michel Othoniel's new glass brick sculpture series, "Precious Stonewall" (2021) / Courtesy of Othoniel Studio / Jean-Michel Othoniel Adagp, Paris, 2022 |
In addition to such pieces that have become Othoniel's well-known, established idiom, the artist noted that the show also signals a new start in his creative journey.
One is his desire to plunge into a more ambitious experiment with glass bricks ― in terms of architectural shapes as well as color. He recalled how his fascination with the seemingly ordinary construction material began during his trip to India in 2009.
"Indian people, when they want to build a house, they first buy the land and then they buy bricks after bricks over the years (until they have enough to begin the construction)," the artist said, adding how he would constantly come across different piles of bricks silently waiting to be transformed into houses.
"It was like seeing piles of hope, energy and desire ― the desire to build your own house, the desire to be in your own world. That's when I said I want to blow glass bricks."
Such a decision initially led to the birth of his monochrome tower of glass bricks, "Precious Stonewalls." However, the months-long lockdown in Paris during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the artist to stare at blank sheets of white paper every day, prompted him to look for bolder mixes of color.
"Every day, I would draw the same pattern, the same number of bricks. Then, I would try to bring new energy, new beauty, like building a new (visual) language," he said.
After the lockdown ended, he was left with a massive pile of drawings that imagined a variety of new color combinations he hadn't previously dreamed of, from Indian pink to saffron yellow. It's now his turn to "rebuild" these two-dimensional projects into a three-dimensional series, a mission he began last year.
With calculated lighting, these glass brick installations leave dynamic flame-like reflections on the walls.
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| Jean-Michel Othoniel's latest painting series, "Plum Blossom" (2022) / Newsis |
Another creative shift is his gradual engagement with the world of paintings, which is evident from the latest "Plum Blossom" series on display.
"It's very important for me because I'm going back to the (act of) creation myself. I'm the one working on the canvas," he noted.
"When I'm working with my studio and artisans all around the world, it's more like managing a group of people around my ideas. I needed to go back to touching the material myself."
But the true highlight of the French artist's Seoul show awaits the audience beyond the walls of SeMA's white-walled gallery.
Once visitors leave the museum building, they will soon find themselves strolling alongside a picturesque stonewall walkway, known as "doldamgil" in Korean. A five-minute walk will take them to Deoksu Palace, one of the historic royal palaces from the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty adorned with a meditative garden and a mix of traditional Korean and Western architecture.
Othoniel first set foot in the palace 10 years ago as a tourist with a passion for traditional gardens that reflect the culture and history of each country.
Pleasantly surprised by the prominent presence of bare soil and sand in the garden, he described it as "a garden full of light."
"But at the time, I never thought I would one day have a show there." A decade later, it became a reality.
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| Jean-Michel Othoniel's golden necklaces, lotuses and roses shimmer on a pond at Deoksu Palace as part of the exhibition, "Treasure Garden." Courtesy of CJY Art Studio, SeMA |
Within this former royal residence, Othoniel has chosen a small pond nestled in the corner as his stage of creative enchantment, with necklaces of gold suspended on an ancient pine tree and shimmering lotuses and roses floating on the water.
Fascinated by the omnipresence of lotuses in traditional Eastern gardens, paintings and architecture as the symbol of spiritual enlightenment and rebirth, the artist added a touch of his own dreamlike imagination to create the gleaming aquatic flowers in full bloom, even at night.
Their golden surfaces reach their zenith of beauty when surrounded by native yellow floating hearts that blossom on the pond each sunny summer morning. But the place is also well worth a visit on a rainy day as the aureate metallic flowers against the gray sky offer a different world of poetic contemplations.
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| Jean-Michel Othoniel's golden necklaces, lotuses and roses glitter on a pond nestled in a corner of Deoksu Palace. Courtesy of CJY Art Studio, SeMA |
"Despite being in close proximity, SeMA and Deoksu Palace have never really collaborated on any cultural event, let alone jointly host an exhibition," Bang So-yeon, SeMA's curator, said during the June 15 press preview at the museum.
Othoniel's show has connected the two public cultural institutions with entirely different characteristics through his artistic vision.
"The exhibition is built with the idea that the palace and the museum are a mirror of each other," he said.
"In the museum, the water is formed with blue bricks. And in the palace, it's the real water. So you have these two ponds ― one as imaginary and one as real that are in dialogue with each other."
And with the establishment of such a link, he emphasized the importance of art being in a public space as it is able to reach other demographics in different parts of reality outside the walled gallery ― the world characterized by pure abstraction and the conceptual.
"It's a way to connect the street to the museum and to give this notion that art is for everybody… Doing the show in Deoksu Palace is fantastic because it can touch another (group of) public ― people who are perhaps not from the art world."
"Jean-Michel Othoniel: Treasure Gardens" runs through Aug. 7 at SeMA.
