Jardin d’addiction
by Berdaguer & Péjus

27.02.2018 – 30.08.2020
Exhibitions

The work Jardin d’addiction (“Garden of Addiction”) was realised by French artists Christophe Berdaguer and Marie Péjus between 2009 and 2011 at CIRVA (International Glass and Visual Arts Research Centre), Marseille ; it is on long-term loan at mudac and will be presented here until the museum’s closure before moving to PLATEFORME 10.

The creation of this work required much dexterity and precision on the part of the glassmakers. The larger glass stems were blown while the thinner ones were melted with a blowtorch.

With this work the artists address the mechanisms of the human brain in relation to addiction. The extremity of each stem—or synapse—features a glass bulb that contains the fragrance of an addictive substance, e.g. coffee, tobacco, wine, whisky, mushrooms, opium, weed, cocaine and heroin. These fragrances were designed in association with perfumers Christophe Laudamiel and Christoph Hornetz (Les Christophs). The thin entangled roots inside the garden refer to the brain’s complex network of neural connections. The fragility of the glass and the impossibility to handle the stoppers in order to smell the fragrances leads us back to our own resentment towards these addictions.

Jardin d’addiction thus triggers various feelings within the viewer, e.g. attraction, desire, withdrawal and repulsion, challenging and captivating audiences with its monumental quality and technical prowess.