O Olho da Noite: a "planetarium" by Jean-Michel Othoniel specially designed for MON as a tribute to Oscar Niemeyer

“O Olho da Noite”, by french artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, is the next major international exhibition at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON). The exhibition will be inaugurated on November 22, MON's anniversary day, and will feature works in the Eye, in the Araucária Spaces 1 and 2 and in the outdoor area (water mirror). The curator is Marc Pottier.

"It's an immense joy to welcome an exclusive exhibition of such magnitude by Jean-Michel Othoniel to MON, celebrating the Museum's anniversary and strengthening the great cultural dialog between Paraná and France," says the Secretary of State for Culture, Luciana Casagrande Pereira.

"Each exhibition held by MON in its iconic Eye is unique. What the public sees is always the sum of the talent of a great artist, in this case the contemporary French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, with a unique and dazzling exhibition space, considered in itself a work of art, designed by the master Oscar Niemeyer," explains MON's director, Juliana Vosnika.

"Othoniel's genius exceeds all expectations when he transforms the exhibition room into a kind of large planetarium, with the signs of the zodiac floating in the form of 12 blown glass sculptures," she says.

On the floor, the public will see a sea of blue glass bricks that reflect both the constellation and the arch imagined by the architect, in a surprising combination.

"As if it didn't just fit inside the Museum's exhibition space, Othoniel's work spills out. At the foot of the Eye building, the public will see large abstract sculptures, inspired by flowers, which float in the water mirror, causing a surreal effect," says Juliana. She explains that this has been a premise of the Museum: to break physical boundaries and go beyond the places originally intended for exhibitions, invading other spaces.

In total, the exhibition features 25 large-scale works. The sculptures are made of different materials, such as mirrored glass and stainless steel, mirrored glass and wood, and steel and gold leaf.

The Eye of the Night

The curator explains that the title of the exhibition evokes the shape of the building where the exhibition room is located. "The exceptional building and this elevated 'eye', built by Niemeyer, is a much more complex place than it seems, despite the simplicity of its design," comments Pottier. "The ceiling is curved and the walls on both sides are made of glass, as if they were suspended above the ground."

Pottier explains the choice to install large abstract sculptures, inspired by flowers, in the outdoor water mirror. "Just like Niemeyer's building, which was to be inspired by the Araucaria, the symbolic tree of the Paraná region, he made sure that his lotuses rose above the water, showing off their reflections," he says. These sculptures, which are monumental, seem relatively small compared to the gigantism of the building and are a tribute to Niemeyer's passion for botany."

Jean-Michel Othoniel says that when he was a young artist, he had the opportunity to meet Oscar Niemeyer in person at the architect's house in Rio de Janeiro. "The memory of gazing at the stars with him through a large window, as if I were facing the curved universe of Brasilia, left a deep impression on me," he says. "It was on this poetic memory that my first major solo exhibition in Brazil was built," says the artist.

The artist

Jean-Michel Othoniel (France, 1964) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Paris. A multidisciplinary artist since the late 1980s, Othoniel has worked in various fields: from drawing to sculpture, installation to photography and writing to performance. In 1993, he started using glass, which became his mark.

Since his first public commission in Paris in 2000, "Le Kiosque des Noctambules", his work has been exhibited in both museums and public spaces. Among them, the project of golden glass fountain sculptures in the gardens of the Château de Versailles, "Les Belles Danses", and "Alfa", an installation for the new Qatar National Museum, with 114 fountain sculptures. In 2019, a new series of paintings entered the permanent collection of the Louvre Museum.

Jean-Michel Othoniel has held major exhibitions all over the world since his participation in the Kassel Documenta in 1992. He had an important retrospective at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris: “My Way”. It has been exhibited at the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art/Plateau in Seoul, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, the Macau Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

In recent years, Othoniel has exhibited in museums and gardens at the Petit Palais in Paris, the Seoul Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. His works are currently in some of the world's most renowned contemporary art museums, foundations and private collections.

Jean-Michel Othoniel is represented by the galleries Perrotin, Simões de Assis and Kukje.