“Les Fleurs du Mal: A Pictorial Dialogue with Baudelaire”
Represents the fusion of my passion for poetry and painting in an artistic project in 2014. Inspired by the masterpiece of Charles Baudelaire, this series of 120 small-format paintings sought to translate the richness and darkness of “Les Fleurs du Mal” into images, connecting each poem with a local flower or plant. The decadent poetry of the 19th century, encapsulated in “Les Fleurs du Mal,” served as the essence of my work, merging beauty in decay and the dark. Flowers and plants became visual metaphors for Baudelaire’s poetry, while the language of flowers, floriography, became an essential part of my creative process. Each flower conveyed a message harmonizing with the original poetry, exploring the duality of beauty and decay, a central theme in his work.
This project went beyond painting; driven by my interest in this collection of poems, I undertook the learning of French, the language in which these verses were written. My exploration of the language’s roots deepened my understanding of Baudelaire’s work. Paradoxically, my immersion in his poetic compendium coincided with the beginning of my research on the concept of madness. Baudelaire, considered a cursed poet for challenging social norms through “Les Fleurs du Mal,” was labeled as a lunatic, adding depth to his enigmatic relationship with communication and sanity.
In summary, this series became an intimate dialogue between literature and painting, merging two artistic expressions and laying the groundwork for my next project, “The Eden of Madness,” which delved even further into the link between nature and human creativity.
