Jean-Michel Othoniel’s work is poetic, monumental, and profoundly personal at the same time, despite its elusiveness. As one of France’s most visionary living artists, he is known for his luminous glass and metal sculptures and large-scale architectural installations. “Othoniel Cosmos or The Ghosts of Love”, his most ambitious exhibition to date, is currently on view in Avignon.
In a brilliant constellation of art, memory, and emotion, the solo exhibition transforms the City of Popes with 270 works that span 10 landmark sites. Born in 1964 in Saint-Étienne, France, Othoniel started his artistic career in the late 1980s. His breakthrough came in 1993, when he realised the expressive potential of glass while working with Murano’s master artisans. Since then, glass has been his signature medium. Seductive yet fragile, it reflects the emotional terrain he explores: transformation, beauty, longing, and spirituality.
“While I am not religious, I explore the idea of the sacred, the kind of contemplation that connects us to something greater than ourselves,” Othoniel explains. Avignon brings his ideas to life in an unprecedented way. It runs until 4 January 2026 and takes over the entire city—from the Gothic splendour of the Papal Palace to the fabled Pont d’Avignon (Bridge of Avignon)—through chapels, museums, and public gardens.
Each site is a stop in a pilgrimage of love. Othoniel notes that it is a first in France, perhaps the world, for a city to hand over all of its cultural properties to one artist. “It’s a huge challenge, but also a fantastic opportunity to present the main themes of my work, especially from the past 10 years.”
Avignon’s deep papal roots and rich cultural history, particularly its connection to Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch, inspired the exhibition. In the title, the Ghosts of Love refers to Petrarch’s lifelong obsession with his muse Laura, whom he glimpsed only from afar but immortalised in verse. Othoniel channels that same lyrical melancholy throughout the show.
“The idea of a love that haunts you—whether for a person, nature, or your first experience of art—became the emotional thread of the exhibition,” he explains. “It’s like a diary of love.”
While visitors can chart their own path through the exhibition, Othoniel considers the Bridge of Avignon—now adorned with golden metal and red glass bead crosses—as its symbolic gateway. “It’s a door open to others, a new bridge built through poetry and hope.”
Nearby, in the St Claire Chapel, where Petrarch first saw Laura in 1337, a larger-than-life Murano glass heart stands behind a golden gate. “It’s romantic and unexpected. You will come across it as you walk through the city. This idea of a promenade is central to the show. It encourages a slower way of experiencing art and taking time for yourself on Avignon’s small streets.”
The Papal Palace is the heart of the exhibition, featuring 133 mostly new works displayed across 15 rooms, including four monumental astrolabe sculptures suspended above a swirling pool of blue glass bricks in the Grand Chapel with a 19m-high ceiling.
“I structured the show like a constellation. The Papal Palace is the sun and the other nine locations are planets orbiting it.”
A standout piece is a dazzling wall of 60 abstract floral paintings in ink on white gold leaf, shown in France for the first time. “It will be a big shock for French audiences,” he adds, “to discover this side of my work and my obsession with flowers.”
There is more to the experience than just the visuals. In the city’s former Pommer public baths, now the Hygiene Museum, Othoniel debuts a series or working glass fountains infused with scent, created with celebrated perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. Movement, sound, and smell are all incorporated into them. “I want to awaken all the senses,” he says. “These are emotional experiences, not just objects on display.”
Even contemporary dance is included in Othoniel’s creative vocabulary. Carolyn Carlson, a Franco-American dance icon and fellow member of the French Academy of Fine Arts, will perform in the Cour d’Honneur of the Papal Palace in early August. The 30-m-long stage will feature his site-specific installation of thousands of glass bricks and three towering stainless steel yardang sculptures.
At 82, Carlson will dance for the final time alongside Paris Opera Ballet stars Hugo Marchand and Caroline Osmont. “It’s incredibly moving for her to close the circle this way,” Othoniel shares. “She began her career in this very courtyard in the 1970s.”
Bringing the exhibition to life was a two-year effort involving nearly 400 artisans, engineers, museum staff, gallerists, publishers, transporters, and installers. Fifty trucks transported his works from his studio to Avignon, and many sculptures were assembled by hand on-site.
“It was like a film production,” Othoniel says. “We relocated my 20-person studio to Avignon for a month and a half.” It includes works from collections across the world, from Korea to the US to Brazil to Finland, as well as rarely-exhibited pieces from his own archive.
“Othoniel Cosmos or The Ghosts of Love” is more than a retrospective. It celebrates artistic freedom and beauty in times of difficulty. “I hope the show brings joy, hope, and energy, and reminds us that art still has the power to move us,” says Othoniel. “For Avignon, I hope it becomes a beautiful souvenir of its 25th anniversary as European Capital of Culture and an opportunity to discover their city.”
