A decade after the I ♥︎ John Giorno exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, John Giorno’s poetry makes its return through a site-specific installation created for the building.
John Giorno dedicated his life to democratizing the creative process by envisioning innovative ways in which art, poetry, performance, music, spirituality, and activism could blend and enhance one another. Echoing his Poem Paintings—in which bold, colorful capital letters display excerpts from his poetry on various surfaces—the Welcoming the Flowers installation stretches across the windows of the main landing in the Palais de Tokyo’s public area.
Conceived by artist Ugo Rondinone, the installation transforms a selection of paintings from the 2007 Welcoming the Flowers series, based on the poem of the same name, into a luminous stained-glass installation activated by sunlight. In this version, the floral motif intertwines with natural light, giving rise to a vertical garden of radiance, color, and language that playfully honors love, sexuality, spirituality, and civic and political commitment.
john giorno welcoming the flowers, 2007 - 2024.
