MO.CO.
Located in the heart of the city, this former private mansion from the early 19th century has been transformed into an art center dedicated to international exhibitions. It is the main entity of Montpellier Contemporain, an artistic ecosystem grouping together two exhibition spaces and an art school.
Located in the heart of the city, this former private mansion from the early 19th century has been transformed into an art center dedicated to international exhibitions. It is the main entity of Montpellier Contemporain, an artistic ecosystem grouping together two exhibition spaces and an art school.
Programme
Sense Unknown - Art & Science Season
Venue: MO.CO.
The exhibition brings together more than one hundred works by thirty artists, offering an open and porous journey between materials, experiments, disciplines, and eras, with the aim of testing reality – or what we know of it.
In Chaos : Making a New Science (1987), James Gleick points out that the development of a scientific theory is often based on the repetition of experiments and the recurrence of an event. An isolated event is therefore considered an error. However, in the research process, serendipity, chance discovery, accident, and the acceptance of a twist of faith open up new pathways that were beyond our predictions. We then move from known worlds into the unknown.
The artists in the exhibition sometimes come from scientific backgrounds, while others have worked with scientists or are simply passionate about one of these fields. They share a common interest in experimenting with the unknown through the reinterpretation of scientific forms and processes.
Prodrome, Pierre Unal-Brunet
Venue: MO.CO. Panacée
Pierre Unal-Brunet was born in 1993 in France and lives between Paris and Sète. He collects inert materials, debris, and other surpluses of the world from aqueous harvesting areas. He assembles them to form object-beings in installations combining paintings, sculptures, and ink drawings. With an approach to evolution that borders on cryptozoology, his research draws on scientific articles from ichthyology (the study of fish) and marine biology, as well as on fantasies about these harvesting grounds. The result is a science-fictional environment inhabited by composite bodies.
With some thirty works created over the past five years, Prodrome is Pierre Unal-Brunet’s biggest solo exhibition to date.
Metempsychosis, Ivana Bašić
Venue: MO.CO. Panacée
Metempsychosis by Ivana Bašić takes the form of a rite of passage, a spatial journey that questions the material and metaphysical boundaries of humanity. Featuring more than twenty works, the exhibition brings together sculptures, drawings, video, and a seven-meter-long robotic altarpiece. The experience invites the audience on a surreal journey where the dissolution of bodies and the material world is not seen as a loss, but as the emergence of radical potential.
The works of Ivana Bašić, born in 1986 in Yugoslavia, are strongly influenced by the experience of war, violence, and brutality that, following the collapse of her native country, ended up marking her childhood. Certain ontological obsessions then become urgent: the frangibility of the human condition; the crisis of the Self and the Other; the possibility of reimagining life and death; the quest for immortality. Bašić’s hybrid bodies propose metamorphosis as a substitute for escape, whether on an individual or collective scale: when there is nowhere left to hide, can transformation be the solution ?
Access
MO.CO
13, rue de la République, 34000 Montpellier
Open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 7pm (June - September) and 11am to 6pm (October - May)
MO.CO. Panacée
14, rue de l’École de Pharmacie, 34000 Montpellier
Open from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 7pm (June - September) and 11am to 6pm (October - May)
+33 (0)4 99 58 28 00
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WALKS
• Le Jardin des Plantes
• Musée et Conservatoire d’Anatomie
• La Halle Tropisme : an associative place where the Montpellier's culture and party combine. Bar and restaurant.
TO DISCOVER AT THE MO.CO
• MO.CO. Panacée : patio with a garden designed by Coloco.
• MO.CO. : site-specific artworks to discover, the garden designed by Bertrand Lavier, Jardin des sept continents (2019) and Les arrosoirs arrosés (2019) and Loris Gréaud’s artwork, Idle Mode (2019) in the bar-restaurant.
• MO.CO. Esba : in the schoolyards: artworks by Fabrice Hyber, Prééau (2019) and Bob & Roberta Smith, this is a freedom of Expression Centre (2019).
LESS THAN 60 KM
• FRAC Occitanie Montpellier
• Musée Fabre
• Pavillon Populaire
• Espace Saint-Ravy
• Mécènes du sud Montpellier-Sète
• Aperto
• Iconoscope
• AL/MA gallery
• La Jetée, art gallery and studio
• CRAC Occitanie (Sète)
• Musée International des Arts Modestes (Sète)
PLACES TO STAY
• Le Mas de la Feuillade : guest houses in the heart of a classified park.
• La Merci : guest houses with an indoor garden, very good value for money.
• Hôtel du Palais : in the heart of the district l’Écusson since 1870, very close to the famous Place de la Canourgue.
• Hôtel Oceania Le Métropole : just a step from the MO.CO, an iconic place built in 1898 in the style of the French Riviera’s prestigious palaces.
PLACES TO EAT
• Le Pastis : a first Michelin star in 2021. Come and enjoy the surprise menus of Daniel Lutrand and Jean-Philippe Vivant.
• Leclere : Guillaume Leclere enhances the products, the season, the nature. A must-go.
• Faune : a creative and modern Provençal bistronomy with foreign influences.
• Mikado : japanese Chef Takétomo Lulu Sumi (ex-Ito Chan) cooks “the best ramen in France” according to Le Fooding.
• Rosemarie : mediterranean cuisine and cocktail bar with a big terrace, in the historic centre.
• Ikonka : salads, pies, super fresh and non-classical unique dish. A wide variety of pastries.
• Zaatar : the best falafel in the region!
• Äponem, l’auberge du presbytère : a gastronomic journey inspired by the Hérault’s wilderness, signed by Chef Amélie Darvas and sommelier Gaby Benicio. (Vailhan)
HAVE A DRINK
• Café de la Panacée : restaurant for lunchtime, you can come have a drink all day long and enjoy tapas in the evening in the pleasant and vast courtyard.
• Panka : come and enjoy regional products, natural wines and seafood tapas.
• Les Garçons : a lively bar-tapas-wine cellar downtown.
• Le Parfum : you will find the best cocktails in the city.
• Le Poisson Rouge : a former house of oyster farmers with a breathtaking view, offering a simple and tasty cuisine inspired by the sea. (Frontignan)
• La plage Bonaventure (Palavas-les-Flots)
