French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel has mounted his largest-ever exhibition across the city of Avignon, installing 270 artworks—140 of them new—in 10 locations including the Palais des Papes, city museums, public courtyards, building facades, and the medieval St Bénezet bridge. The show, commissioned to mark Avignon’s 25th anniversary as European Capital of Culture and 30th year as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2025, took nearly six weeks to install and involved a team of hundreds, including glassblowers, metalworkers, gilders, and dancers. Othoniel took the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch as his thematic starting point, exploring different facets of love across the venues.
The exhibition matters because it represents an unprecedented scale for a single artist’s work, transforming an entire historic city into a gallery and demonstrating how contemporary art can engage deeply with local heritage. Othoniel’s use of blown glass, gold leaf, and stainless steel in dialogue with medieval architecture and Petrarchan poetry offers a model for site-specific, culturally embedded public art. The show also highlights the logistical and creative ambition required to realize such a diffuse, multi-venue project, potentially influencing how cities and artists approach large-scale commemorative exhibitions.