Exhibition catalogue on the theme of flowers.
The exhibition
Flower power, organized by
le Consortium for Lille 2004, (Lille, France was nominated the cultural capital of Europe for the entire year) in three of the city's institutions, fully exploited the floral theme in reference to the rebellious counter cultures of the 60s.
Conceived by Alain Tapié, the new director of the Museums of Lille, the show derouted the normal order of the paintings displayed in the Hospice Comtesse Museum by replacing the habitual classic frames with still lifes of flowers. Simultaneously, the Palais des Beaux Arts hosted a contemporary group show displaying a range of artists from
Warhol to Rosenquist,
Richard Hamilton to
Rémy Zaugg, Michael Lin to Paul Morrison,
Yan Pei-Ming to
Piero Gilardi,
Yayoï Kusama to Yayoï Deki, borrowed from private and public collections worldwide.
Also, the Palais Rameau designed by Baltard presented a sort of magic garden with real and imaginary flowers conceived by
John Armleder, Choi Jeong-hwa,
Jessica Stockholder,
Kim Sooja,
Jorge Pardo and
Lily van der Stokker.
The stunningly illustrated catalogue, designed with respect to the tri-partite installation, includes excerpts by Lio Lionni as well as texts by Alain Tapié and the curators : Franck Gautherot, Seung-Duk Kim,
Xavier Douroux and
Eric Troncy. The entire publication reproduces every work included in the exhibition which varies as iconographically as it does stylistically, not forgoing kitchy flowered wall papers, exotic stamps, publicity posters and Marimekko prints...
