JSBART : In earlier centuries, flowers were coveted status symbols, today they are traded global ly as a mass product

JSBART  

 

In earlier centuries, flowers were coveted status symbols, today they are traded global ly as a mass product. Currently, the flower is coming into focus as a fragile yet indis pensable component of our global eco-system. With objects from art, design, fashion  and natural science, Flowers Forever offers an elaborately staged tour through the cul tural history of flowers from antiquity to the present day.  

 

GUEST: OWANTO – Visual Artist  

 

The presentation comprises around one hundred and seventy works from international  collections as well as installations created especially for the exhibition. Important ex amples from the histories of art and design enter into a fruitful dialog with new artistic  approaches. The exhibition features works by Jan Brueghel the Younger, Abraham  Mignon, Barbara Regina Dietzsch, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Hannah Höch, Andreas  Gursky, Miguel Chevalier, Ann Carrington, Patricia Kaersenhout, Kehinde Wiley,  DRIFT, and many other artists. They all bring the multifaceted cultural history of flowers  to life in impressive ways.  

 

MORE ABOUT THE GUEST:  

Owanto is a multi-cultural Gabonese artist born in Paris, France. She was  raised in Libreville, Gabon, and later moved to Europe to study Philosophy, Lit erature and Languages at the Institut Catholic de Paris in Madrid, Spain.  Owanto’s multidisciplinary practice emerges from a 30-year ca

reer where she explores a variety of media, including photog raphy, sculpture, painting, video, sound, installation and per

formative works. A practice that enables her to engage with  

consciousness through the notion of memory, both personal  and collective. 

In 2009, Owanto represented the Republic of Gabon at the 53rd  Venice Biennale with a solo show entitled “The Lighthouse of  Memory – Go Nogé Mènè”, being the very first artist from  

Central Africa to exhibit solo in a National Pavilion. Through  

the use of archives and found documents her proposal traces  the past to shape the future, honouring the title “Go Nogé  

Mènè” which means “building the future” in her mother  

tongue. Central to her artistic proposal is the question “OÙ  

ALLONS NOUS?” (Where Are We Going?). A poetic, om

nipresent, important, fundamental and universal probe. 

Owanto’s interest in memory leads her to construct new utopian  worlds while reflecting on the concepts of identity, transfor

mation and evolution. As the daughter of a Gabonese mother  and French father, influenced by Africa, Europe, colonialism  

and the earth, the artist explores cross-cultural and transhis

torical dialogues. She seeks to interrogate the meaning of  

existence and of her personal and shared history. 

https://www.afronova.com/artists/owanto/