Jean-Michel Othoniel
Wild Knots
Mar 3 - May 9, 2021
Jean-Michel Othoniel, Nœud sauvage, 2019, Mirrored glass, stainless steel, 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in. (90 x 90 x 90 cm)
Arsenal art contemporain Montréal is delighted to open the exhibition Wild Knots presenting the sculptural work of the internationally acclaimed French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel. The exhibition, comprised of 16 mirrored glass sculptures that take the form of Borromean knots, borrows from complex mathematical interpretations and algebraic topology. This ensemble of suspended and self-supporting pieces, all produced between 2015 and 2019, form serpentine lines, dynamic and tumultuous curves, and infinite loops. In a quasi-calligraphic gesture, they transform the exhibition space into a place of wonder, an abstract landscape.
The title of the exhibition is a reference to the work of the Mexican mathematician Aubin Arroyo, whose research focuses on wild knots and reflection theory. The mathematical theory of the knot reveals the existence of more than a million possible knots, some of which are called «wild» knots and have an infinite degree of complexity. The interaction of contemporary art and mathematics confers to the exhibition a fertile symbolic terrain, it generates invisible links between the rational and the intuitive. The shimmering textures of the sculptures and their strategic placement in the space produce a visual game that engages the viewer simultaneously in the inhabited space and in the reflected surface. Through its simplicity and poetic minimalism, the work of Jean-Michel Othoniel induces the feeling of wonderment.
Jean-Michel Othoniel presented his work at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris (2003), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Miami (2004), the Louvre Museum in Paris (2004 and 2019), at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2011), at the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art / Seoul Plateau (2011), at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo (2012), at the Macao Museum of Art in Macao (2012), at the Brooklyn Museum in New York (2012). Othoniel creates a dialogue between contemporary art and architecture through his monumental work in public art, be it Kiosque des Noctambules at the Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre station in Paris (2000), in the gardens of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Les Belles Danses, these sculptures-fountains presented in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles (2015) or the 114 sculptures-fountains created for the National Museum of Qatar (2018). Elected to the France’s Academie des Beaux-Arts in 2018, Jean-Michel Othoniel is represented by Perrotin (Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai), and Kukje (Seoul). His works are collected in the world's most significant museums and private collections.