Le Mucem - Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons Mucem. Hanging heart, have you a soul?

In this exhibition at the Mucem, artist Jeff Koons has played with objects, documents, and works from the museum’s reserve collection to create fascinating displays that resonate with his own works. 

By Dominique Juan

The exhibition explores meaning, interpretations, and dialogue between objects, with a focus on the artist’s interest in the ‘popular’ arts. Jeff Koons’s meticulous work with everyday objects, and the poetic dialogue between them, are illustrated by quotes from the artist in the 13 rooms where 300 objects from the museum’s reserve collection are on display. Thirty years of Koons’s work are explored alongside innumerable thoughts sparked by objects from the museum’s collection. These formal and symbolic visions inspire an examination of objects and their role in our lives, giving visitors the freedom to completely reinterpret the exhibit. For example, Hanging Heart, a giant red heart with a mirrored surface, is a symbol of humanity, warmth, or romanticism. Combined with the anatomical, heart-shaped ex-votos, it becomes a symbol of love or unity. Another example is the very Baroque marble sculpture Bourgeois Bust – Jeff and Ilona that questions the representation of sexuality in art and juxtaposes the Bouquet de Saint-Eloi, a blacksmith’s sign composed of all the types of horseshoes a craftsman can create. Better than the Kamasutra… The Pinault collection, which is housed at the Palazzo Grassi-Punta della Dogana in Venice and the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, made this astonishing exhibition possible by loaning 19 of the 20 Koons works present. Pinault is an important partner in international ‘outside the walls’ exhibitions organised by both public and private institutes.

« Jeff Koons Mucem. Œuvres de la Collection Pinault »
Jusqu’au 18 octobre
1 esplanade du J4, Promenade Robert Laffont, Marseille 2^e
mucem.org