Artiste sculpteur français, Jean-Michel Othoniel a créé son propre style dans lequel se mêle sculpture, dessin, photographie, écriture et performance ! Ses œuvres aux matériaux novateurs et aux allures architecturales rencontrent désormais jardins et sites historiques du monde entier.
Jean Michel Othoniel was born in 1964 in the Paris region. Graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts in 1988, he created his first exhibition 4 years later, consisting of works in wax or in sulfur. These materials have the particularity of being reversible and allow creation to evolve and metamorphose. This characteristic will be the essential marker of Othoniel's work throughout his career.
Moreover, his work as an artist is mixed with that of a researcher. In 1992 he made a trip to learn more about sulfur and met a volcanologist who praised the merits of the natural glass of volcanoes. He then undertook 2 years of research into the properties of this material, which would later become the keystone of his creations.
His sculptures reflect this work and are conceived as real scientific experiments.
Since 1996 and an exhibition in the gardens of Villa Médicis, the consideration of the exhibition space in the creation of sculptures has become another essential marker of the artist's work, his work being consistent with the landscape around him. For example, he makes his works intertwine with the vegetation: his necklaces run through the branches and foliage and this fusion between art and landscape gives a poetic aspect to his creations, which are then transformed into a kind of fantastic fruit. This is also the case with his sculpture integrated into the Water Theater of the Versailles Gardens, which transcribes Louis XIV's passion for dance. Similarly, when his exhibitions take over the public space of an urban environment, Othoniel likes to tell stories that take into account the history and function of the place. Such is the case when he transforms the Palais-Royal metro station into a "Kiosque des Noctambules": he imagines this place as a meeting place for the few people who walk there after dark.
Most of Jean Michel Othoniel's creations are made of blown glass spheres that look like pearls. Often likened to jewellery (or erotic objects), her sculptures nevertheless deal with deeper themes. They sometimes evoke his love of travel, as evidenced by his nomadic exhibitions and the craftsmanship (borrowed from foreign populations) that he highlights. Indeed, he regularly calls upon glassblowers from elsewhere: Mexicans, Japanese or Indians who bring a touch of originality to his works.
Othoniel also put his art to the service of political denunciation when, in 2005, he created the "Boat of Tears" which pays homage to exiles. Made from a boat of Cuban refugees recovered from the beaches of Miami, this work reinforces the expressed political ideology.
Art, history, architecture, poetry: Othoniel's works reveal the artist's multiple aspects and do not leave anyone indifferent. Want to be surprised by one of these monumental creations? Visit the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in Saint-Etienne to admire Big Wave, for example.
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Auxane from Comme des Français
