How often do we get the opportunity to visit an art and poetry exhibition?
My guess is - not that often.
Just like the Halley Comet, which is visible from Earth every 75 - 79 years, such events are few and far between. More's the pity. The fluid no man's land between art and poetry is a fertile ground for artistic experiments.
How does an art and poetry exhibition come to life?
It starts with a spark. A creative spark that sets the tinderbox which is our imagination on fire.
I'm lucky that, in this case, the German artist Tatiana Burghenn-Arsénie came up with the uncanny vision of a hybrid form of art.
It seemed a far-fetched possibility at the time. She suggested that we combine prose poems with paintings and drawings side by side.
The core source of inspiration was the series of drawings and paintings that dr. Burghenn-Arsénie was undertaking - depicting the four temperaments - four statues, the work of the sculptor Johann Gottfried Knöffler (1716-1779).
The drawing and paintings, representing The Melancholic, The Sanguine, The Choleric and The Phlegmatic were paired with four prose poems that I wrote. The prose poems attempt to render a poetic version of the four characters.
Their respective texts were applied in dr. Burghenn-Arsénie's handwriting directly on the canvas.
We named this group "Quartet".
To the four temperaments, the painting of "Das Kavalierhaus" in Berlin, where the statues were once placed, was added.
You can read an extract of "Quartet" in the online magazine "Harpy Hybrid Review".
From this initial concept, the exhibition, which opened on Sep 16, 2022 at Brose Haus in Berlin, Germany, emerged. It runs until January 2023.
Here is the link with the details of the exhibition on www.visitberlin.de.
Aside from "Quartet", the exhibition includes a series of drawings and paintings by
dr. Burghenn-Arsénie and a few of my poems. The venue is a historical building from the XVIIIth century, Brose Haus, with three cozy, superbly lit rooms and the spectacular Brose Park in the background.
I'm grateful to the organizers of the exhibition for the opportunity to present my art, the collaboration with dr. Tatiana Burghenn-Arsénie and for generously allowing the whitespace between art and poetry to come to life, vibrant, at Brose Haus.
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Irina Moga is a Canadian writer.
You can follow her on Twitter: @pictopoems