Of note, an upcoming collection of poems by Joël Gayraud from Pierre Mainard editions, based on encounters with sculptures in the studio of the surrealist sculptor Virginia Tentindo. In (a translation) of the author’s own words:
“When I first entered Virginia Tentindo’s studio, it was like stepping through the looking glass. There, under a canopy of virgin forest filled with the impalpable rustling of wings, creatures of clay, marble, porphyry and bronze always awaited me. They cast upon me glances from far away, penetrating, but without any inquisitiveness, like the stars on a clear night and children when they wake up. I could not have said where they came from—neither from Pharaonic Egypt, nor from India nor China, nor from Mayan nor Incan lands, nor from the countless shores of Oceania. I landed on an island that did not appear on any map. An island populated by forms wherein I perceived, enmeshed in a motionless saraband, cats, lions, hares, ape-like or human figures—and the very face of death. They constitute a unique world, which cannot be reduced to anything known without entailing a loss of meaning. Despite the confusion of genera and the hybridization of species and kingdoms, Virginia’s sculptures each have their own character, defined by the names with which she has given them. Of course, she names them in the same manner as she creates them, according to her reverie. I walk among them, stroking them with my hand after coaxing them with my eyes, feeling the sensual softness of porphyry, the taut curves of bronze, the silky skins of clay. And with the same grave candor with which they looked at me, they began to speak to me beyond their mute lips. On each of my visits, I collected their words; this is how, bit by bit, the poems that I have dedicated to them in this little book were born.”
Get it here!
One of these wonderful pieces was published way back in Issue 3 of Peculiar Mormyrid (2016). Have a look here!