Visitors to Monaco cannot fail to notice ‘Vanity’, the gold skull stuck with butterflies (below) that currently stands in front of the magnificent Baroque Oceanographic Museum. The work is the latest in a series of cross-cultural shows, initiated in 2010 by Damien Hirst when the museum underwent a major restoration. The museum was founded in 1910 by Prince Albert I, a passionate mariner who prophetically foresaw the dangers of overfishing and other menaces to the marine environment. In the first gallery, his statue stands guard over one of the monumental works by artist/sculptor Philippe Pasqua commissioned for this show. ‘The Wheel of Time’ (above) is a darkly beautiful mediation on themes that obsess Pasqua: the life cycle, vanity, death and extinction. ‘Who Should Be Scared?’, a vast ‘crucified’ shark on the roof terrace by the restaurant, begs a second question – should I really order fish? A thought provoking show set in vast baronial halls that are home to everything marine related.
Until September 30th at Oceanographic Museum, Monaco www.ipmag.link/2rrnyED
Photos © Martin Delpozo
