Acclaimed French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel transforms the newly renovated flagship venue on la Croisette with a luminous exhibition shaped by gold, glass and cosmic memory.

When La Malmaison reopened its doors in January 2025 following a meticulous renovation, the City of Cannes signalled its intent to make the venerated La Croisette more than a parade of luxury stores. Now, the reborn art centre delivers on that promise. Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Poussière d’étoiles (May 17, 2025 – January 4, 2026) transforms the space with 91 works, 53 created specifically for La Malmaison, into a meditation on celestial origins and earthly beauty.

The exhibition springs from a poetic truth about our world’s most precious metal and is anchored in the story of its astronomical origin. “Gold is not original to our Earth,” Othoniel explains, “it comes from a rain of meteorites produced by the collision of two supernovas billions of years ago.”

Photo by Valentin Hennequin

This cosmic inheritance forms the philosophical heart of an exhibition where gold catches light across monumental glass sculptures. The artist builds a visual language that is both exacting and enchanted. His blown glass beads, either gilded or stained with rich colours, gather into forms that feel ancient yet impossible, relics of ceremonies no human has witnessed. Arcs of glass sweep through rooms. Fountains of coloured bricks rise from floors. Blue mirrored surfaces capture and multiply the Mediterranean light streaming through windows. On the walls, passiflora-shaped pieces radiate with a sacred geometry that refuses easy categorisation.

These installations transcend mere beauty. They provoke and unsettle through deliberate tension. Each work plays with opacity and transparency, solidity and suspension, creating spaces where viewers question the nature of substance itself. Othoniel deliberately dissolves boundaries between reality and imagination through what he describes as “the magic of materials” and “infinite plays of light.” The industrial origins of glass and metal vanish as scale, repetition and meticulous craft transform them into entities approaching the sublime.

Jean-Michel Othoniel – Gold Rose; Othoniel Studio

Jean-Michel Othoniel – Fontaine; Othoniel Studio

Jean-Michel Othoniel – Le Grand Collier Or; Othoniel Studio

La Malmaison, the oldest surviving villa on La Croisette, has seen many reinventions. But this latest chapter feels different. Following the success of its reopening show, Luxe, calme et volupté, which drew 19,000 visitors in under two months, the venue has clearly reclaimed its position on the cultural map. And Othoniel’s show feels particularly meaningful. Rather than overwhelming the architecture, his works engage in intimate conversation with the building’s bones and history. The dialogue between art, light and space unfolds differently with each passing hour as the Mediterranean sun charts its course.

The exhibition extends beyond the interior, with three major sculptures installed outside to emphasize the art centre’s prominence on the Croisette. These outdoor works create a dialogue between the controlled environment inside and the natural Mediterranean light that has long defined the Côte d’Azur’s artistic heritage.

Othoniel is no stranger to major commissions, and 2025 sees him exhibited concurrently at the renowned Long Museum in Shanghai (“Othoniel, the Enchantment”) and at the Papal Palace  in Avignon (“Othoniel Cosmos ou Les Fantômes de l’Amour”). Yet Poussière d’étoiles stands apart. It is less an international showcase than a local alchemy, a work attuned to the specific light, climate and visual history of Cannes. In a city known for festival glamour and celebrity, Othoniel offers a different kind of stardust. His is not a metaphor but the residue of something real, a cosmic memory made tangible through art.

Details

Jean-Michel Othoniel – Poussière d’étoiles
17 May 2025 through 4 January 2026

Centre d’art La Malmaison
47, boulevard de la Croisette
06400 Cannes

Open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am – 1 pm / 2 pm – 6 pm
Admission €6.50 / concessions available

All photos courtesy Ville de Cannes and as credited