Standout Works at the 2022 Biennale de Lyon

Though not required, it’s highly recommended that visitors to the Lyon Biennale start their viewing experience at the Renzo Piano–designed macLyon because it is the only place where all three chapters of the Biennale are told. Only the third one, titled “A world of endless promise,” prevails in the other 11 venues. On the fourth floor of the building a marble statue of Apollo from antiquity  shares his wooden barred crate with one of Kim Simonsson’s (b. 1974) green elf-like creatures, which were installed in various other locations of the Biennale. (These sculptures were also the mascots of the lille3000 art festival this summer.)

“Oh, we did not put him there! He sneaked inside the box all by himself,” Bertolotti joked during a walkthrough. This association embodies the whole spirit of the display, thought as a huge installation where artists from various times and backgrounds, loans and commissions meet, to tell the story of Louise Brunet. Perhaps the protection cage is a metaphor for prison, where the Lyon-based silk weaver was trapped with older or younger inmates with different skills from hers. Who knows?