The exhibition “The Eye of the Night”, by Jean-Michel Othoniel, curated by Marc Pottier, celebrates the 22nd anniversary of Oscar Niemeyer museum and strengthens the dialogue between the Paraná and France. The French artist presents 25 works, occupying several of the exhibition spaces: the Eye, the water mirror and two more galleries.
Jean-Michel Othoniel has held several international exhibitions since his participation in Documenta in Kassel in 1992. He says that, when he was still a young artist, he met Oscar Niemeyer in person, in Rio de Janeiro, and contemplated the stars in the sky with him through one of the large windows of his apartment: “It was in this poetic memory that my first solo exhibition in Brazil was constructed”.
In the curved space of the Eye, giant glass necklaces representing the signs of the Zodiac and lotuses were hung, which stand out in the water mirror, causing reflections.
Check out our conversation with the artist on the day of the exhibition’s opening.
Art!: When and why did you decide to work with glass as your main material?
Jean-Michel Othoniel: I think the material wasn't the first thing that came to my mind when I started working. It was a way to offer a more optimistic vision of the world, using this idea of beauty and bringing beauty to today's world. That was my idea 20, 25 years ago. And little by little I realized this idea that bringing beauty, bringing hope to people, was important to me as an artist, almost as a political act, bringing beauty to the world.
And glass is a material that everyone knows, it is part of our intimacy and it is present all over the world. So, people in Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, everyone has an experience with glass and a kind of magical poetry in their intimacy. It was a way of using a material that is capable of dialoguing with different civilizations, different ways of thinking, different religions. It is a material that talks about fragility, about the fact that you need to accept your own fragility in order to face the world. And, by accepting this, you become stronger. That was something important to me when I decided to use this material.
After this conceptual vision of the material, I was always surprised by it: always new ideas, always new colors, always new people to meet from different countries. I worked with Indian, Italian, Swiss glassblowers. I worked in Mexico with Mexican glassblowers, in Japan with Japanese glassblowers. And each time, it is a way of discovering the world and different cultures.
Art!: What was your first contact with art?
Jean-Michel Othoniel: I was lucky enough, as a child, to go to a museum when I was 6 or 7 years old. That was because I lived in a communist city in the center of France called Saint-Étienne. And there wasn't much there. It was a very poor city, with mines and people working in coal. It was a dirty city, but we had a museum of contemporary art with contemporary artists coming to Saint-Étienne in the 1970s, which was something completely new. And people came from all over Europe just to see exhibitions and to work there. And as school children, we were forced to go to the museum every Wednesday.
It was magical for me, like a window that had opened. A window to freedom, to another vision of the world. And it changed my life. So I told my parents that I wanted to go to art school when I was 7 years old. And I did. After school, every Thursday night, I would spend three hours drawing with the artists at the art school.
Art!: So you went to art school?
Jean-Michel Othoniel: Yes, I started art school when I was 7. And I was totally fascinated by it. The idea of expressing yourself was a way to open your mind and free your soul. I liked reading about art, going to museums, drawing. I was happy doing that. But deciding to be an artist, I don't think it's a decision you make. I think life chooses it for you. At some point, it becomes a necessity in your life. You can only do that and nothing else. I decided to work in art when I was 22 or 23.
Arte!: You had already been to Brazil and met Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro, right?
Jean-Michel Othoniel: Yes! I had the opportunity to be invited to his apartment. We spent hours talking and looking at the starry sky. He said, “I want to show you where I do my drawings.” Then he took me to a very small room, maybe, I don’t know, 10m², maybe 25m², full of books and in the middle, a small table, maybe 1m x 1m, a very small table. When I saw that, I said, my God, this genius drew all this architecture on such a small table. It was a shock for me. A gift. Such a brilliant and famous man and so humble.
Art!: Here there are different modulations of the same material, what inspires each one?
Jean-Michel Othoniel: I have two models in my work, beads and a kind of square shape, like a brick. And these two models are things that people know all over the world. The idea of the brick exists in so many religions and in all cultures. Bricks can be used to make modules that I use and with them I can make both small and large sculptures, which can reach 20 meters in height.
When I went to work in India, I went to a place called Firozabad, which is a small village. I found a way to get involved with a family of glassblowers, which wasn't easy because they didn't speak English. It was in the middle of the desert, near Agra, near the Taj Mahal, but in the middle of nowhere, with no hotel, no place to stay.
It was a great challenge. On the way to this place I saw several pieces of bricks on the ground, made with earth to build their houses. For me, it was a wonderful message, a message about what people can have in mind, the expectation of building their own house. Then I thought: I want to blow bricks.
It wasn't easy, because you had to blow a square instead of blowing a spherical shape. So I worked with them. We made some samples by blowing on sand, blowing on clay. Little by little we found a way to do this project. We had very old instruments as molds. It was like working in the past, it was like working 200 years ago.
Art!: Does each culture develop different experiences with glass?
Jean-Michel Othoniel: Each country has a different vision of glass. For example, in India, glass is very much linked to jewelry architecture, because of the pavilions of the maharajas made of glass. You have had glass furniture for weddings for 200 years. The world of Indian glass is very much connected to fairy tales. For them, it is something magical.
If you go to Italy, it’s more about design. They want to create beautiful shapes, with incredible colors, perfect. The glass is completely transparent. If you go to Japan, it’s more meditative. It’s about the way of working. You mix the glass with gold leaf and work on the details. People see glass as a form of meditation.
Each country brings a new experience and a relationship with glass that is linked to its own culture. And I love discovering this, because it brings me new ideas, new connections with the world.
