ART CITIES:Athens-Les Fleurs du Mal

The group exhibition “Les Fleurs du Mal” revolves around Charles Baudelaire’s volume of poems with the same title that is one of the most influential poetry collection in the history of world literature. First published in 1857, it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements. The poems deal with themes relating to decadence and eroticism.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: The Project Gallery Archive

With “Les Fleurs du mal” serving as both their starting and reference point, the works presented by the artists participating in this exhibition approach Baudelaire’s world not by depicting it, but rather by transliterating its power, intensity and fascination, in a way that is original and personal, suggestive and insightful, associating that world with contemporary realities. Charles Baudelaire is credited with coining the term “modernity” (modernité) to designate the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the responsibility of artistic expression to capture that experience. More or less all of the contemporary artist who judged “Madame Bovary” judged “Les Fleurs du mal” too. Baudelaire and his work were accused to be immoral and a threat to public morality. was a great but yet unaccepted poet of that time. He was also punished for some parts of this, at that time, misunderstood and immoral book. Four years later the book was published again but this time they’ve cut out all of the parts that could endanger public morality. The “Flowers of Evil” was written for 15 years but at that time the book was not well accepted and became recognized as a work of art many years later. Baudelaire wanted to torture the readers with his poems because they were used to reading nice verses that made their, in Baudelaires opinion, pretty but hypocrite lives even better. Baudelaire was not the kind of artist who wanted to write poems about beauty and an uplifted spirit. Instead of them he decided to write about darker themes in his book of poems. The “Flowers of Evil” consist of over 160 poems that are divided into 5 units creating 6 cycles. The book is based on the introductory poem that is a dedication to the reader named “To the reader” and on 28 compositions named “Additional songs” that were not divided nor included in the already mentioned 6 cycles. The main and the biggest cycle is the first one named “Spleen and ideals” that is consisted of 88 poems. All of the most important motives are brought out in the first poem. In it Baudelaire describes how a modern man goes to waste in a society of hypocrites describing it with aesthetics of ugliness. “Spleen and ideals” contains series of songs describing a new aesthetic program and new visions of art and beauty. The first cycle ends in a conclusion that a man cannot fulfill himself with love and that is the reason why he goes back to his psyche that is described as suffering. “Parisian scenes” is the name of the second cycle that seem the most complete of all of them. It consist of 18 poems that revolve around the life in a big city. The writer walks through town for 24 hours and finds happiness and misery on the streets and that reminds him of his suffering. After that a small cycle named “Wine” comes and it deals with the theme of narcotization while in the cycle “The Flowers of Evil” the poet writes about sexual deviations. That cycle was the most provocative one. The cycle “Revolt” has only 3 poems and it describes a hero standing on the line between heaven and hell. The last cycle is called “Death” and the title indicates the theme. Baudelaire unravels everything in it and looks closer on the destiny of humans. This book of poems is the poet’s vision of things in the current social situation and also his rises and falls. He rebelled against lies and frauds and wanted to find the first initiator of the human existence. In the same time he thought that it weren’t all fake and empty conventions of behavior.

Participating Artists: Angelos Antonopoulos, Annita Argyroiliopoulou, Giorgos Alexandridis, Andreas Vais, Vasilis Vasilakakis, Babis Venetopoulos, Ioulia Ventikou, Maria Vozali, Andreas Voussouras, Nikos Giavropoulos, Leonidas Giannakopoulos, Kornelios Grammenos, Vasilis Zografos, Antigoni Kavvatha, Nikoletta Katsamperi, Aris Katsilakis, Theofilos Katsipanos, Christos Kountouras, Despina Konstantinou, Nikos Lagos, Afroditi Liti, Alexandros Maganiotis, Thanos Makris, Dimitris Merantzas, Christina Mitrentse, Lina Bebi, Xenofon Bitsikas, Emmanouil Bitsakis, Nikolas Bliatkas, Vally Nomidou, Laura Dodson, Lysimachos P., Maria Panagiotou, Nikos Papadimitriou, Antonis Papadopoulos, Konstantinos Patsios, Natassa Poulantza, Vasilis Poulios, Ifigenia Sdoukou, Stefania Strouza, Dimitris Tataris, Nikos Tranos, Theodora Tsiatsiou, Kostas Tsolis, Marios Fournaris, Kyriakos Chatzimichailidis, Pantelis Chandris, Yannis Psychopedis, Mantalina Psoma.

Info: Curators: Alexandros Maganiotis and Yannis Bolis, The Project Gallery, 3 Normanou str, Monastiraki, Athens, Duration: 14/12/19-2/2/20, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-23:00, www.theprojectgallery.gr