Jardin d'addiction

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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.