Les Noeuds de Janus
October - December 2009, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
Discover the exhibitionThe "Nœuds de Janu"s exhibition gather together a set of new works by Jean-Michel Othoniel.
The artist's desire to escape from the hieratic aspect of his work and figure or freeze motion while approaching a certain abstraction is pregnant in this exhibition. It develops "the question of the absent body. This is about creating volumes of absence, constructions of variable dimensions where bodies could curl in ".
At the entrance of the exhibition, a black and silver beads suspension spins endlessly. The hanging sculpture entitled Nœud de Lacan, 2009, materializes the psychoanalytic theory of the Borromean knot that structures the subject by this delicate balance between the Real, the Symbolic and the Imaginary. Bicolour Lassos are inspired by Minimalism sculpture and concetto spaziale, especially Fontana’s Spatial Light (1951), by their complex convolutions. The work Les Lacets bleus, 2009, placed on a pedestal and not suspended as the necklaces are, is a continuation of pieces as Rivière blanche, an artwork created in 2004 for the Mesopotamian halls of the Louvre - acquired by the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris ARC- or Peggy's necklace shown in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice in 2006. The series of works on paper - conducted by Michael Woodworth’s workshop in Paris - introduce "the idea of movement, real rebounds, ricochets, imaginary desires and knotted heart.
As part of the exhibition, Dilecta Editions and Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin published the artist's book Les Nœuds de Janus.