It is long time since I do not wirte in my own language, Spanish and long since I have not read in my language. And today by chance, by pure virtual and modern chance, I have encountered a very old friend, Bihotz, Salva. I found his articles online and I could read in my own language again:
El torbellino de la modernidad (Salvador Cobo)
We haven’t seen each other in 10 years and I loved tasting his words and Baudelaire’s words about modernity
The fortune of the word Modernity is due mainly to the figure of the French poet Charles Baudelaire (1822-1867). In his essay The painter of modern life, written in 1859 and published in 1863, coined the concept with a sentence that would go on to posterity: «Modernity,» he tells us, «is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art, whose other half is the eternal and the unchanging.
Salvador Cobo
The transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, half of art, whose other half is the eternal and the unchanging. Ayh…
Immediately, it reminded me of the exhibition at the Stadël in Frankfurt that I enjoyed last Sunday where this huge painting caught my attention for a very long time.
Max Liebermaan portraits Dalilah defeating Samson.
A biblical story found in the Book of Judges written back in 550 BC. That is pretty old I would say. And yet it is still able to stay alife nowadays, right now, to move me inside.
That «fugitive», «eternal» part that Baudelaire mentions, that part of art that touches you inside.
The image (not the biblical story itself) and the symbolism in it reminds me of the many stories of women I hear every week in my work.
Women trying to get out of the arms of their men. Dependent, by culture, by tradition, by necessity, or by poor education and early abuse that undermine self-esteem.
Some escape and enter an unknown swamp, fear, loneliness, helplessness, anguish, stress. Others stay in between, entering abusive relationships again, trying to change those men. Feeling that they only deserve to be treated like this, not accepting that that is NOT OK. Others, manage to help themselves and transform, transmute into new women outside the swamp. Others simply resign. There are many more types of women than Delilahs painted through history.
And this image, huge in the museum, covering the entire wall, gives me strength.
Delilah’s face. The expression of YES. Triumphant, almost out of his arms.
Almost out of the black hole.
Eternal and fugitive, like art.
Painting by: Max Liebermaan – Samson und Delilah 1902
i move i am 