Le Songe d”Ovide (Ovid’s dream )

Le Songe d”Ovide has been commissioned to me by the MAMAC, Nice, in the context of the exhibition ‘L’ombre, le reflet, l’écho’, curated by Rebecca François, in the Palais Lascaris, a 17-th century baroque palace in Nice.

I envisioned this blown, cane-sculpted sculpture, for the State Bedroom of the Palais Lascaris.

“A ladder of translucent, opalescent glass stands in front of the four-poster bed.
As its feet turn into roots and anchor themselves in the ground, it leads straight up to the bed’s canopy, creating a passageway to somewhere else.

The metamorphosis of the ladder into a tree is a dialogue with the ceiling painted in the 17th century by the Genoese school, depicting Apollo and Daphne transformed into a laurel tree.
The title of the work, Le Songe d”Ovide, refers to the book of Metamorphoses by the Latin poet Ovid.

At night, the glass ladder emits a surreal bluish light.
This phosphorescence guides us into a world of stars and dreams.”

Text by Rebecca François