Scandalous but always intoxicating... Were Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire necessarily poisonous? Maison Guerlain questions itself in a disturbing exhibition inviting deep introspection on the duality of life and death, sadness and the ideal, in short, Good and Evil. Metaphors of femininity for some, poetic manifestations of an ethereal sensuality for others, fleeting allegories of nature or symbols of eternity with an ephemeral character... The flowers here show subtle ambiguities constantly oscillating between the fragility of the sculptures by Johan Creten and the diffuse eroticism of Robert Mapplethorpe's black and white photographs. Of this
way, the exhibition dares contrasts by bringing together 25 international artists with particularly polished universes. The languorous work of Mimosa Echard thus dialogues with the more sensual work of Araki, while the strange beauty of the decomposed bouquet of Yan Pei-Ming naturally opposes the monstrous canvases of Oda Jaune, available in a range of carnal colors , in soft and pastel tones. Les Fleurs du mal have definitely lost none of their brilliance in this stunning ode to the sulphurous work of the accursed poet.