Paul Celan in paintings by Jan Mulder
KAZERNE DOSSIN Mechelen Belgium Oct 21, 2021- Feb 15, 2022
This film ( 6 min) is an impression of the guest exhibition The Meridian of the Heart
The exhibition is a highlight in the Celan project 'A Journey' of Dutch painter Jan Mulder at Kazerne Dossin on the occasion of the 101st birth of year of Paul Celan. Included are photocollages of places where Celan lived and worked, and that the painter visited.
The exhibition in the Panorama Room of the museum is a report of my journey through poems of Paul Celan and along important places in the poet's life. In this journey I meet artists, poets and thinkers. The encounters take place in Czernowitz, Celan's birthplace, in Vienna, the old capital of Europe, in Paris, the city where he lived from 1948 onwards and where he died, in Pau in the south of France where he began his Irrfahrt and also in Utrecht, Hannover and New York where people from the literary world generously guide me through Celan's multifaceted world of language. My work, paintings, are a visual reflection of this journey. The installation I have compiled includes paintings, texts on Celan's life and work and photo collages. The exhibition features works from 2015 onwards. The monumental five-part Stehen | Die Niemandsrose from 2021, after the namelike poem Psalm, is painted in egg tempera, with chalk violet pigment, the colour of shadow, and reflective titanium white for light. The opening of the exhibition took place on 21 October 2021 and coincided with Poetry Centre's study day under the title Paul Celan through the eyes of others. Vivian Liska spoke about Paul Celan's influence on German poetry. Bosse Provoost on his stage adaptation Matisklo. Ton Naaijkens looked more closely at his work in the visual arts. Charlotte Van den Broeck and Erik Lindner performed poetry. The Austrian author Robert Schindel read some of his own poems that refer to Celan in a video message. Ton Naaijkens gave the evening lecture at the invitation of the Institute of Jewish Studies. The afternoon of the meridian on Sunday 13 February marked the closing of the exhibition with spoken word, music and dance in the auditorium of Museum Kazerne Dossin and, of course, the exhibition in the adjoining Panorama Room. The afternoon opened with the film Atemwende, based on Celan's poem Weggebeizt by the film-maker, dancer and choreographer Ruth Meyer, in which Michael Schumacher depicts the poem in a dance on an Alpine glacier. Carl De Strycker of Poëziecentrum talked with me about my work in relation to Celan's poems. Akim A.J. Willems read from his cycle of poems after Paul Celan. The music of Heleen Schuttevaêr connected all parts and Heleen gave a beautiful performance of the 19th century song Schwarze Augen. Timeless... Read more + Nederlands| Dutch