Jean-Michel Othoniel dug deep into Avignon’s history and cultural riches in preparation for his mega solo show there, gleaning inspiration from the 10 museums that will host his sculptures and paintings — and from its famous denizens, notably Francis Petrarch, a 14th-century priest and scholar who wrote reams and reams of poetry about an unrequited love.

Legend has it that in 1327, Petrarch caught sight of a fair-haired, married woman named Laura in the church of Saint-Claire and fell head over heels, inspiring ardent daily writings of passion, anguish and ultimately despair.

Othoniel immortalizes this wrenching tale with a giant heart of red Murano glass beads caught behind a golden fence in what remains of the chapel.

The work succinctly illuminates what’s behind the title of the exhibition, “The Ghosts of Love,” which runs from June 28 until Jan. 4, 2026.

“I think this energy of love is very important today, and beauty also. So I wanted to pay homage to that,” Othoniel muses during an interview at a tearoom that’s a glass bead’s throw from the Palais des Papes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “That’s why I say ghosts of love — it means love is not easy. It’s something you have to fight for. It’s something you have to remember. It’s something you have to share, and to cherish.”

The sprawling show — his biggest yet — unfurls as a romantic, ultimately poetic promenade through the city’s winding, cobblestone streets, historic sights and unique museums.

“My work is really connected to strong emotions and the ghosts of love are not just personal stories,” he says. “It can be the love of antiques, love of architecture, love of art history. This figure of love is so impressive in this city of Avignon.”

So, too, is the notion of the sacred, as Othoniel is taking over 15 rooms of the imposing Palais des Papes, a marvel of Gothic architecture that hosted the papacy for 70 years until 1377 — and welcomed its first fashion show last month, courtesy of Louis Vuitton.

“It’s also not just linked to religion,” Othoniel explains about the sacred elements to the show. “It’s linked also to this idea that works of art can take you to another dimension — a dimension of contemplation, escaping reality in another way.”

One of France’s most prominent and accomplished contemporary artists, Othoniel is perhaps best known for his whimsical, crown-like canopy over the subway entrance at Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre in Paris, the giant glass necklaces punctuating stairwells in Chanel boutiques, and his swirling golden-bead fountain at Versailles.

The Avignon takeover also puts the spotlight on lesser-known aspects of his practice, including 60 paintings he will mount on one massive wall of the Palais des Papes, and a ballet spectacle scheduled for early August that winks to his roots in performances and installations.

The show features almost 270 works, roughly half of them created for the Avignon showcase and some of the monumental spaces he will take over.

“It’s really a big challenge,” says Othoniel, who began plotting the exhibition about two years ago, organizing loans from private collectors across Europe and putting his Paris atelier — which includes a warehouse full of glass bricks and beads, his main materials — into overdrive. “In our field, it’s quite important this city, maybe it’s the most important city [for art] after Paris.”

Indeed, the Palais des Papes, a key venue during Avignon’s famous summer theater festival, has been a coveted venue for fine artists since Pablo Picasso’s landmark shows in 1970 and 1973, and a group showcase dedicated to beauty in 2000 that the city wished to reprise to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Avignon being named the European Capital of Culture.

“The idea of beauty is really part of my work since many years,” Othoniel says, casually mentioning the historic divide in art history between Henri Matisse, on the side of beauty, and Picasso, who “was always in this idea of destroying the image.”

“Myself, I feel close to Matisse in terms of enchantment, beauty, joy and color,” he says. “It’s important to build a space where you can find yourself, and find hope. You come into the show and you find yourself in a sort of suspended moment. You enjoy yourself, you enjoy your emotions, and you leave the show stronger.”

The show is also designed to exalt Avignon’s many attractions, with a monumental gold archway erected on its partial medieval bridge (only four arches survive) to works housed in 10 museums, all free to enter. Some of them are famous, like the Petit Palais-Louvre Museum, home to early Renaissance paintings from Italy, while others are hidden gems like the Requien, a rickety natural history museum where Othoniel installed a cabinet of curiosities, or the Bains Pommer, a former bathhouse that will temporarily feature a dozen glass fountains.

“The different museums change slightly the meaning of each piece,” Othoniel says. “For me, it’s very joyful to do because it’s like an open book to my heart and my feelings.”

He will also install paintings and sculptures at Yvon Lambert’s large gallery, whose permanent collection of Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt and Carl Andre works recalls Othoniel’s discovery of minimalist and abstract art in his hometown of Saint-Étienne, which harbors a renowned modern art museum.

A 1987 graduate of École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts in Cergy-Pontoise, northwest of Paris, Othoniel gained wider international attention with a show at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice in 1997, and another at the Fondation Cartier in Paris in 2003.

Once American architect Peter Marino laid eyes on Othoniel’s jewelry-like metro entrance, he hunted him down so they could work together.

Marino reckons he’s commissioned the artist for dozens of Chanel boutiques as well as fireplaces for projects in New York and Paris, “and even a complete room for a client in Greenwich, Conn.,” he marvels.

“Jean-Michel has a real sense of architecture and will enhance every building that he touches in Avignon,” Marino says.

Othoniel whorls glass elements into strands, knots, halos, waves, molecular formations, stacks and abstract shapes, while leaving them open to interpretation.

“It’s a big statement as an artist to do a show around this idea of bringing beauty and joy. It’s almost a political act to bring beauty to the world,” he says. “I think a big challenge for me as an artist is to be totally French and at the same time, totally universal.”