“IL LENZUOLO VIOLA” at ERMES – ERMES

The language of flowers to say I wish you were here

Flowers are no longer the language of the heart. It is a question of form and mass – obliterating direct reference to reality. It seems the subject is not the flowers but the technique. Marcel Broothaers

An «impression» can mean sensation or an idea – as in “I have the impression he likes me” or it can mean an example of the print, as in “this is the best impression we have made from the plate”. Richard Hamilton

Floral motifs, I could not bear them as a child; neither on clothes or objects. A floral design with roses, daisies, lilacs; those feminine creatures, distinguished, vulnerable, encrypted, signs of life, of love, everywhere. Their anonymity was what bothered me. Who painted them and why?

The religious belief says that in 1531 Juan Diego, an indigenous boy, brought as a proof of having seen the Virgin Mary several times, an impression of her image on the piece of cloth, which appeared after dropping a bunch of roses he harvested in the mountain. Her image, magically printed with petal pigment, was the call for catholicism in the Latin America.

Once I came across a flower shop in Zurich Airport called “The language of Flowers”. What I really read in that name was another sophisticated language of sales. But if flowers are a language, then why don’t I know it? What do they say?

I found in between my notes “flowers are our frank acceptance of the natural cycle”.

Which makes me think, why did you not accept yours? You just left forever without a warning. I had the stupid impression one day we would be able to say we loved each other and join our lives. I said nothing to prepare you. You already said everything by ending yours: our lack of language and of flowers.

Your family asked us to bring them images and for you flowers.
Will I wake up from this nightmare? Can I call you afterwards?
Will you answer with a flower? If I drop a bunch of them will I find you?

Adriana Lara

A broadsheet made by Julie Peeters for the exhibition Il Lenzuolo Viola will be available at the gallery. We would like to thank Iole Rabasco and Azienda Agricola Rabasco for the Rosato Cancelli.