Fleurs du Mal Magazine
Ritual slaughter
In Holland animals are considered inferior inhabitants of the planet. Inspired by religious voting potential, political parties in the Dutch Senate (VVD, SGP, PVDA, CDA, D66 and the Christen Unie) will overrule House of Commons and vote against a law that would prohibit ritual slaughter. There seems to be no limit to our retarded feelings of superiority.
Melseke
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William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
THE SONNETS
107
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul,
Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come,
Can yet the lease of my true love control,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.
The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,
And the sad augurs mock their own presage,
Incertainties now crown themselves assured,
And peace proclaims olives of endless age.
Now with the drops of this most balmy time,
My love looks fresh, and death to me subscribes,
Since spite of him I’ll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o’er dull and speechless tribes.
And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
When tyrants’ crests and tombs of brass are spent.
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: -Shakespeare Sonnets
panorama of neon tubes. Before the passage into the former cloister building, the smoke machine by Pipilotti Rist generates beautiful, short-lived air bubbles. Pepi Maier’s spiral-shaped copper-tube ice sculpture floats in the attic of the Ursulinenhof, iced over by the moisture of the air and with the help of a cooling machine. Following a winding entry into the north tower, visitors finally reach the large attic of the Ursuline church. There Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima provide an ethereal blue hour with a hydrau ulic neon wave. “Mira, el mejor lugar , una prima mía me ha hecho padrino de su hijo; acaba de nacerle un pequeñuelo de piel blanca con manchas pardas, y quiere que yo lo lleve a la pila bautismal E perché‚ non litigassero fra di loro, li condusse davanti al castello, soffiando fece volare in aria tre piume e disse: -Dovete seguire il loro volo-. Una piuma volò verso oriente, l’altra verso occidente, mentre la terza se ne volò diritto e non arrivò molto lontano, ma cadde a terra ben presto. Così un fratello andò a destra, l’altro se ne andò a sinistra; il Grullo invece fu deriso perché‚ dovette fermarsi là dov’era caduta la terza piuma. Il Grullo si mise a sedere tutto
J. A. Woolf: Making memories (05)
kempis.nl poetry magazine
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Ton van Reen
de bomen
De bomen
hebben zich opgehangen
in de lucht
ze hebben de sferen
doorworteld
de bovenaardse lagen
afgegraasd
ze zijn als wilde paarden
op hol geslagen
de manen van hun
veel te grote wezens
achter zich sleurend
als bagage
alsof ze mensen waren
die met grote ijver
verjaagd zijn
van hun beperkte meters aarde
om het bezit van de vruchten
Uit: Ton van Reen, Blijvend vers, Verzamelde gedichten (1965-2007). Uitgeverij De Contrabas, 2011, ISBN 9789079432462, 144 pagina’s, paperback
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Archive Q-R, Reen, Ton van, Ton van Reen
D. H. Lawrence
(1885-1930)
After The Opera
Down the stone stairs
Girls with their large eyes wide with tragedy
Lift looks of shocked and momentous emotion up at me.
And I smile.
Ladies
Stepping like birds with their bright and pointed feet
Peer anxiously forth, as if for a boat to carry them out of the wreckage,
And among the wreck of the theatre crowd
I stand and smile.
They take tragedy so becomingly.
Which pleases me.
But when I meet the weary eyes
The reddened aching eyes of the bar-man with thin arms,
I am glad to go back to where I came from.
D. H. Lawrence poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive K-L, D.H. Lawrence, Lawrence, D.H.
Alfred de Musset
(1810-1857)
Derniers vers
L’heure de ma mort, depuis dix-huit mois,
De tous les côtés sonne à mes oreilles,
Depuis dix-huit mois d’ennuis et de veilles,
Partout je la sens, partout je la vois.
Plus je me débats contre ma misère,
Plus s’éveille en moi l’instinct du malheur ;
Et, dès que je veux faire un pas sur terre,
Je sens tout à coup s’arrêter mon coeur.
Ma force à lutter s’use et se prodigue.
Jusqu’à mon repos, tout est un combat ;
Et, comme un coursier brisé de fatigue,
Mon courage éteint chancelle et s’abat.
1857
Alfred de Musset poetry
kempis.nl poetry magazine
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Joep Eijkens: Brief Encounters (02)
© Joep Eijkens photos 2005 – 2011
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John McCrae
(1872 – 1918)
The Oldest Drama
“It fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.
And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad,
Carry him to his mother. And . . . he sat on her knees till noon,
and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed. . . .
And shut the door upon him and went out.”
Immortal story that no mother’s heart
Ev’n yet can read, nor feel the biting pain
That rent her soul! Immortal not by art
Which makes a long past sorrow sting again
Like grief of yesterday: but since it said
In simplest word the truth which all may see,
Where any mother sobs above her dead
And plays anew the silent tragedy.
John McCrae poetry
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Archive C-D, McCrae, John
Ai Weiwei: Interlacing
Until: 15th Jan. 2012
Kunsthaus Graz – Lendkai 1 – 8020 – Graz
The first large-scale exhibition of Ai Weiwei’s photographic and video work—taken over from the Fotomuseum Winterthur—puts the spotlight on Ai Weiwei the communicator and indefatigable remembrancer, the documenting, analysing, interlacing and multichannel-communicating artist. Even in his New York period (1983–1993), Ai Weiwei took photographs, but especially since his return to Beijing, he has tirelessly documented everyday realities of the urban environment and society in China, and discussed them in blogs and twitters. The photographs of the radical changes to the urban built fabric, the search for earthquake victims, and the destruction of his Shanghai studio are presented along with art-photographic projects, the documenta Fairytale project, the countless blog and mobile-phone photographs. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive book of material and archives (published by Steidl, Göttingen).
Ai Weiwei is a generalistic, conceptual, socio-critical artist, dedicated to friction with and the design of realities. As an architect, conceptual artist, sculptor, photographer, blogger, Twitterer and interview artist and political activist, he is a seismograph for current themes and social problems: a great multiplicator and communicator, who leads a life for art and art as life.
Ai Weiwei was born in 1957, the son of poet Ai Qing. After studying at the Beijing Film Academy, in 1978 he and others founded The Stars artist collective, which rebelled against Socialistic Realism and came out in favour of artistic individuality and experimenting in art. In 1981, Ai Weiwei went to the USA, and in 1983 to New York, where he studied under painter Sean Scully at the Parsons School of Design. In New York, he discovered artists such as Allen Ginsberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and above all Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp was important to him because he saw art as a part of life. The result was his first ready-mades and thousands of photographs documenting his stay and those of his Chinese artist friends in New York. When his father fell ill, Ai Weiwei returned to Beijing in 1993. In 1997, he co-founded the China Art Archives and Warehouse (CAAW) and began to take an interest in architecture. In 1999, he opened a studio of his own in Caochangdi, and in 2003 founded the FAKE Design architecture studio. The same year, he was substantially involved with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron in the construction of the Olympic Stadium, the so-called Bird’s Nest, which after its completion became the new emblem of Beijing. In 2007, at his prompting, 1001 Chinese travelled to Kassel for documenta 12 (Fairytale). In 2010, he astonished the world with his large, formally Minimalist-arranged carpet at the Tate Modern, made of millions of sunflower seeds made of hand-painted porcelain.
At all times, every society in this world, in the past, present and future, needs singular, outstanding figures such as Ai Weiwei in order to remain alert and be shaken into wakefulness, to recognise its own rigidity and to avoid its own tunnel vision. We are delighted that this great thinker, designer and warrior was released from arrest on 22nd June 2011.
The exhibition was organised by the Fotomuseum Winterthur. Curator: Urs Stahel. From 21st Feb. to 29th April 2012, it will be on show at the Jeu de Paume in Paris.
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Ai Weiwei, Andy Warhol, Exhibition Archive, REPRESSION OF WRITERS, JOURNALISTS & ARTISTS
Street poetry:
De beste kunsten zijn altijd het moeilijkst (Rotterdam)
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William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
THE SONNETS
Sonnet 106
When in the chronicle of wasted time,
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme,
In praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights,
Then in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique pen would have expressed,
Even such a beauty as you master now.
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring,
And for they looked but with divining eyes,
They had not skill enough your worth to sing:
For we which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
Sonnet 106
Zie ’k in kronieken van de tijd vergaan
Hoe wezens uiterst fraai beschreven zijn
En schoonheid schoon in oude rijm gedaan,
Met lof op vrouwen dood en ridders fijn,
Dan zie ik in ’t blazoen van zoetste sierlijkheid
Van voorhoofd, oog, van lip, van hand, van voet,
Hoe hun antieke pen zou zijn gewijd
Aan zulk een schoonheid als u eer aandoet.
Dus heel hun hulde is slechts orakeltaal
Op onze tijd, die heel uw beeld voorzegt,
En daar hun blik slechts gissend was en vaal
Deed hun te zwakke zang uw pracht geen recht;
Maar ’t heden dat ons oog het wonder toont,
Verschaft geen tong die dat met lof bekroont.
Vertaling: Cornelis W. Schoneveld
(november 2011)
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: -Shakespeare Sonnets, Shakespeare
Amy Winehouse new release
Lioness, Hidden Treasures
Just released: a 12 track collection of previously unreleased tracks of Amy Winehouse, alternate versions of existing classics as well as a couple of brand new Amy compositions. It has been compiled by long-time musical partners Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson in close association with Amy’s family, management and record label Island Records. “Lioness : Hidden Treasures” proves a fitting tribute to the artist, the talent and the woman and serves as a reminder of Amy’s extraordinary powers as a songwriter, a singer and an interpreter of classics.
Tracklisting:
1. Our Day Will Come
2. Between The Cheats
3. Tears Dry (Original Version)
4. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (2011)
5. Like Smoke Feat. Nas
6. Valerie (’68 Version)
7. Girl From Ipanema
8. Half Time
9. Wake Up Alone (Original Recording)
10. Best Friends, Right?
11. Body And Soul With Tony Bennett
12. A Song For You
Amy Winehouse: Lioness Hidden Treasures album comes with an exclusive poster. £1 of every sale in UK/Eire goes to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, set up in Amy’s memory to support charitable activities that can provide help, support or care for young people, especially those who are in need by reason of ill health, disability, financial disadvantage or addiction.
Amy Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011)
Amy Winehouse released her critically acclaimed debut album, Frank, in 2003, an album that introduced a truly singular talent and earned. the then 20 year-old a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. It was however in 2006, with the release of the universally lauded Back to Black, that Amy became widely recognised, by the critics and public alike, as arguably the greatest British artist to emerge in generations. Back To Black received an astonishing six Grammy Award nominations winning five, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night. Amy became the first British female to win five Grammys, including three of the “Big Four”: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist and was also nominated for Best British Album. She won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for “Stronger Than Me”, one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for “Rehab”, and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Love Is a Losing Game”, among other distinctions. In August 2011 her album Back to Black became the UK’s best selling album of the 21st century.
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse, Exhibition Archive
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