Michaux at Galerie Di Meo

Clown

Some day.
Some day, perhaps soon.
Some day I'll tear out the anchor that keeps my ship far from the seas.

With the kind of courage needed to be nothing and nothing but nothing, I shall let go of that which seemed indissolubly close to me.
I'll slice it off, I'll knock it down, I'll break it up, I'll send it reeling.
Disgorging at a go my wretched pudency, my wretched combinations and gradual concatenations. Drained of the abscess of being someone, I shall drink again the life-giving space.

By making a fool of myself, by abasements (What is abasement?), through shattering, through emptiness, through a total dissipation-derision-purgation, I shall cast out that form of me which was thought to be so well-attached, well-composed, well-coordinated, of the same stamp as the company I keep and as my fellow-men, my oh so worthy fellow men.

Humbled as though by a catastrophe, levelled off perfectly as if by an immense funk.
Reduced immeasurably to my true rank, to the lowly rank that I know not what idea-ambition made me desert.
Annihilated as to height, as to esteem.
Lost in a remote spot (or not even), without name, without identity.

CLOWN, submitting to the assault of laughter, jeers and guffaws the notion that against all evidence I had formed of my importance.
I shall plunge.
Without purse into the infinite space at the back of the one mind open to all, open myself to a new and incredible dew by dint of being null
and blank...
and laughable...


Henri Michaux (1939)


I'm back from Paris, arriving home Sunday evening. Sadly, I haven't been able to visit the Maldoror exhibition at Galerie Furstenberg (interestingly, someone desubscribed as a 'follower' after posting the - admittedly disgusting - quote from Les Chants de Maldoror).

This was amply compensated by being able to visit an exhibition of Henri Michaux's work from the 1980s at Galerie Di Meola. The exhibition consisted of a dozen of Michaux's work on paper, mainly watercolours and indian ink paintings. The exhibition is on until March 28th 2009. Here is a link to a Google books edition of Michaux's Selected Writings.

I had a nice time in Paris: I've walked throught the city until my feet hurt, have eaten very well and saw lots of beautiful art. In a Paris art bookshop, I finally bought a beautiful book of Pierre Verger's photography called 'Schwarze Götter im Exil', the catalogue to the eponymous 2004-2006 exhibition in various cities in Germany. At the Joseph Gibert cd shop, feeling like a kid in a candystore, I bought Deathspell Omega's recent album Chaining The Katechon. I was helped by a very nice cassiere who was a big fan of this excellent French Black Metal band. I'm sad to say that a cd shop with such knowledgeable personel and immense range of cd's doesn't exist in my country anymore.