Les Musées de Menton
Covering a period of more than 1 million years, the museums of Menton have a remarkable group of museums offering a multidisciplinary approach to art, from prehistory to modern art, including invitations to contemporary artists. Since 2005, thanks to a donation from Severin Wunderman, the town of Menton has presented the largest international collection of works by Jean Cocteau, Prince of Poets.
Covering a period of more than 1 million years, the museums of Menton have a remarkable group of museums offering a multidisciplinary approach to art, from prehistory to modern art, including invitations to contemporary artists. Since 2005, thanks to a donation from Severin Wunderman, the town of Menton has presented the largest international collection of works by Jean Cocteau, Prince of Poets.
Programme
The life of plants
Venue: Galerie des musées, Palais de l’Europe
Menton, a garden city on the border with Italy, is paying tribute to several generations of artists and designers who, since the 1980s, have taken an interest in flora in both its ornamental and organic dimensions. Through an eco-responsible scenography based on the re-appropriation of pre-existing modules, this group exhibition presents works created by twelve artists at Marseille's Cirva International Research Centre for Glass and the Plastic Arts.
The artists selected include major figures in radical Italian design (Andrea Branzi, Ettore Sottsass), arte povera (Giuseppe Penone) and contemporary design (Gregory Granados and the Claire + Léa duo, formed by Claire Pondard and Léa Pereyre). The works presented crystallise the sensitive intelligence of the artists. They form a repertoire of intuitions that are echoed in La Vie des plantes, a manifesto by the philosopher Emanuele Coccia.
Escales - Jean Cocteau, Michèle Kleijnen
Venue: Musée Jean Cocteau – Le Bastion
Following in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg, Jean Cocteau ‘travelled around the world in 80 days’. Echoing the poet's works, artist Michèle Kleijnen will be sharing her taste for travel through her own creations. From Egypt to the United States, this colourful journey will take visitors to other horizons.
Sixty-seven works by Jean Cocteau, selected from the Musée Jean Cocteau - Collection Séverin Wunderman collection, illustrate the synopsis of this exhibition. On the walls, drawings of Greek mythological characters, numerous sphynxes for Egypt, glasses and gondoliers for Venice, flamenco dancers and gypsies for Spain, Indian couples for India, the Mediterranean with the motif of the eye in the shape of a fish symbolising the tutelary sea and an evocation of Scotland and Japan... The works by artist Michèle Kleijnen have been specially created in relation to those presented by Jean Cocteau which inspired her. Sixteen installations on the theme of stopovers: Malles, Matelotage, l'Egypte, le tour du monde, Venise, l'Infini...
Access
Galerie des musées – Palais de l’Europe
Palais de l’Europe, 8 avenue Boyer
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 12pm and 2pm to 6pm. Closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays.
Musée jean Cocteau – Le Bastion
Quai Napoléon III - Bastion du Vieux Port
Open every day from 10am to 12.30pm and from 2pm to 6pm except Tuesdays and 1st January, 1st May, 1st November and 25th December.
Musée de Préhistoire Régionale
Rue Lorédan Larchey
Open every day from 10am to 12.30pm and from 2pm to 6pm except Tuesdays and 1st January, 1st May, 1st November and 25th December.
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