MAMAC’s collections take up residence in the Palais Lascaris flats, with drawings, photographs, videos and sculptures, with a special commissioned artwork to the artist Laurence Aëgerter.
An invitation and an original commission.
Laurence Aëgerter’s interest in Arts & Crafts and heritage spaces made this invitation an obvious choice. A number of grandiose, oneiric works have been specially designed by the artist for this project, in collaboration with craftsmen: cabinetmaker, foundryman, glass-maker, upholsterer, etc. Created by the Centre du Verre Contemporain in Biot under the artist’s direction, a milky-white, phosphorescent glass ladder stands in front of the bed in the palace’s ceremonial room. As its feet turn into roots and anchor themselves in the ground, the ladder leads straight up to the bed’s canopy. Le Songe d’Ovide (in reference to the ancient book of Metamorphoses by the Latin poet Ovid) opens a passage to another world. The ladder’s metamorphosis into a tree interacts with the painted ceiling depicting Apollo and Daphne transformed into a laurel tree.
The real and its doppelganger.
The contemporary works in this Baroque building, overflowing with history, evoke the world of ‘reality and its doppelganger’, echoing writings by the philosopher Clément Rosset (Le réel et son double, Gallimard, 1976). This is how, in the midst of this ostentatious architecture, with its rococo furniture, opulent decorations, chubby putti and colourful painted ceilings with moving skies, a world of trompe-l’œil, reflections, miraculous escapes and inaccessible dreams is revealed.
From the patio to the grand floor of the Palais, from the sitting room to the ceremonial bedroom, from the chapel to the musical instrument cabinet, with many surprises in store, eleven artists, thirty artworks and five special productions are taking up residence in this sumptuous location.
Artists: Laurence Aëgerter, Marion Baruch, Barbara et Michael Leisgen, Natacha Lesueur, Béatrice Lussol, Liz Magor, Robert Malaval, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Dorothée Selz and Antoni Miralda
Exhibition curatord : Rébecca François, assistant curator for MAMAC and Elsa Puharre, director of Palais Lascaris – Direction of MAMAC : Hélène Guenin
