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 and Elsa Puharre, 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

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The Harvest of Years