Jugendstil - art noveau ( & Co. ...)

more understandings about paradise and the expression of the human mind/being: i've just returned from Brussels and read more about Art Nouveau (also known as 'Secession' or 'Jugendstil' in German speaking countries) see photo to the left: entry door to the Hôtel Solvay, Brussels, built by Victor Horta

in that book, the contrast between organic forms and technological mass production was presented as a major problem of its esthetic, also that while it sought to appear light and moving (in parallel development to what was presented as a 19th century experience of movement due to increase in level of technology) it remained on a decorative level and didn't yet intervene in dealing with the underlying technology itself.

i realise that i treasure this style as another attempt of the human mind to express itself lightly and with freedom (see the blog-entry on flying).

however, there was a price to pay, as also this art movement was brought forward by the advantage of wealthy over less-privileged who could not afford such a development as easily. (an even more extreme example would be the Rococo or the splendor of Gothic cathedrals compared to the shanty towns that were then making up villages in Europe, or even further back into antiquity...)


in its own right I get to think of the COBRA movement in the Benelux and Denmark, however this was after the more accepting embrace of technological possibilities unhindered by traditional esthetics and the more developed acceptance of corporeality and matter realized in the period erupting after the early 1900's. also, in intention CoBrA was more directly aimed at everybody, not just the elite.


anyway, the theme of flight, or being in between two more consolidated states, continues to interest me, as it makes opening up to possibly new solutions possible, which then can come to appear in the relatively more empty space...