From June 9, 2022, the museums of the City of Nice will host no less than 11 exhibitions on the theme of flowers. The 5th Biennale des Arts de Nice, originally scheduled for 2021, has been postponed to summer 2022 due to the health crisis. Through 11 exhibitions, it celebrates the ties and traditions linking the Côte d'Azur capital to flowers.
Art blooms in Nice all summer long
The Biennale des Arts of Nice has been a recurring cultural and artistic event in the city since 2013. As the Côte d'Azur capital aspires to become European Capital of Culture in 2028, it is hosting this Biennial for the fifth time this year.
After A Summer for Matisse in 2013, PromenadeS des Anglais in 2015, School(s) of Nice in 2017 and Cinema Odyssey in 2019, the 5th edition postponed to the summer of 2022 due to the health crisis celebrates a deeply rooted tradition in the city: the culture of flowers!
A unifying and joyful theme
As you can see, summer is going to be flourishing in the museums of the city of Nice! As during the famous carnival flower battles, there will be colors and bouquets galore in the various cultural institutions of Nice.
As part of the Flowers Biennial, the public will be able to discover 11 exhibitions between June and the end of 2022.
All the cultural actors of the City of Nice have mobilized around this unifying theme to offer a rich and diverse program.
Each of the municipal museums has naturally approached this theme from a singular angle, in line with its particular vocation.
11 exhibitions to discover
The inhabitants of Nice and tourists visiting the city this summer will be spoilt for choice, as the program of this Biennial of Arts in Nice promises to be abundant.
At the Musée Matisse, from June 9 to September 18, 2022, the exhibition Matisse-Hockney Un paradis retrouvé establishes a link between the work of David hockney and that of Henri Matisse.
At the Musée d'Archéologie de Nice Cimiez, the Flos Vitae exhibition focuses on the Natural History of Flowers, through watercolors, herbariums and lithographs. This journey in connection with botany was imagined by the Natural History Museum of Nice. An exhibition to discover from June 11 to October 9, 2022.
At the Musée Masséna, the exhibition Nice, Queen of Flowers explores, from June 10 to October 9, 2022, the many links that unite the city with flowers. Often evoked in the decorations of its architecture, they also have their importance in the local economy and of course in the famous flower battles typical of the Nice carnival!
At the Musée de la Photographie Charles Nègre, the exhibition Roses from my Garden honors the timeless beauty of roses, from June 10 to September 25, 2022. It is the great fashion photographer Nick Knight who offers us this magnificent bouquet of roses, inspired by the work of Flemish painters of the 16th and 17th centuries but using cutting-edge technologies such as digital imaging and artificial intelligence.
The Museum of Photography is also presenting, in its gallery, a body of work by Catherine Larré entitled Antheses. These are photographs of photographs where flowers are associated with faces. An exhibition to discover from June 17 to September 11, 2022.
The Palais Lascaris in Old nice hosts two exhibitions as part of the Flowers Biennial:
- From June 11, 2022 to January 9, 2023, the baroque palace is giving carte blanche to Nice artist Eve Pietruschi for her Artemisia exhibition. The artist has sown floral creations in the museum from local gatherings (dried flowers, flower prints, offerings and other creations inspired by nature).
- At the same time, the Palais Lascaris honors the floral ornaments widely used in the 17th and 18th centuries, with the exhibition Baroque florals. These floral motifs are present in the architecture of the palace and in its decorations, but also in its collections on objects, furniture and musical instruments.
From June 11 to September 19, 2022, the Musée International d'art naïf Anatole Jakovsky presents the exhibition Les Fleurs du Mâle and offers a dialogue between works from its collection and other works by contemporary artists. This museum will also present a living herbarium by reproducing through the blooms of the park the flowers of a dozen works of the museum.
At 109, the Power Flower exhibition invites you to discover the works of 42 artists, some of whom will produce in situ, from June 17 to September 3, 2022. These artists will focus on the symbolic connotations of the flower in relation to contemporary societal and environmental issues.
At the Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret, visitors will be able to rediscover the museum's collections through the prism of flowers. The exhibition Fireworks Flowers. Bouquets from the Musée des Beaux-Arts runs from June 18 to October 30, 2022.
The MAMAC, meanwhile, offers the exhibition Becoming Flowers, from November 10 to April 30, 2022. There you will discover that nature still fascinates contemporary artists who multiply their attempts to interrelate with the plant world. As a symbol of fragility and rebirth, the flower embodies more than ever the current ecological and anthropological issues.