Power flower.
Biennale des arts de Nice.
From 17 June to 3 September 2022.
Grande halle of Le 109.
Curated by Marie Maertens and Cédric Teisseire
With Caio Reisewitz, José Maria Sicilia, Davide Balula, Rina Banerjee, Erica Baum, Jean-Baptiste Bernadet, Andrea Blum, Robert Brambora, Julien Carreyn, Srijon Chowdhury, Morgan Courtois, Johan Creten, Julie Curtiss, Mimosa Echard, Samuel Fasse, Grégory Forstner, Piero Gilardi, Camille Henrot, Ittah Yoda, Rachel de Joode, Bharti Kher, Kapwani Kiwanga, Natacha Lesueur, Michèle Magema, Tony Matelli, Ad Minoliti, Jean-Luc Moulène, Chalisée Naamani, Frédéric Nakache, Daniel Otero Torres, Autumn Ramsey, Julie Réal, Antoine Renard, Loup Sarion, Moffat Takadiwa, Diana Thater, Solange Triger, Kees Visser, Agnès Vitani, Letha Wilson, Junko Yamasaki.
In the Grande halle of Le 109, more than forty artists will explore the symbolic aspects of the flower, from metamorphosis to the evolution of life, from power to fragility, taking on contemporary societal and environmental issues.
As far back as ancient Greece, frescoes or friezes of flowers have seduced spectators and the motif even became established long before that of the landscape, accompanied by the notion of the sublime in the 18th century. In the history of art, the flower was very early on the bearer of symbols and attributes of saints or of various gardens of Eden, when Dutch paintings assigned to it a role as much as a representation of opulence, as a testimony to the fragility and finitude of life.