THE INHABITANTS

Dec.5th, 2014 - After our previous report about Sade at the Musée d’Orsay (read our previous report about "Sade, attacking the Sun") here is another unusual tour that we offer, as if you were, dear little monsters. Today here is a report about a very special exhibition held at the Fondation Cartier’s, 261 Boulevard Raspail in Paris, from november 2014 to February 2015.

Of the three exhibitions to the public, we retained that of Guillermo Kuitca "The Inhabitants" because it is unusual, scary but also poetic in the horror as we like.

The show includes the entire basement: walls, space, sound, lights, paintings and film included. What do not yet know the visitors when entering is that they make part of the show too. All we are "the Inhabitants" of this art space as we are the inhabitants of the world. When accessing the basement, in fact we enter the show and are a piece of the artwork.

The space is divided into 3 parts. We start in a closed boudoir dressed in dark colored walls carpeting in a blood red tone. Inside, the space is confined, with the voice of the singer, Patti Smith filling the space reciting the poem: "Falling backwards Once Again" (see the text below). Listeners are grouped around an empty chair symbolizing either the lecturer or worse the "serial-Killer" described in the poem. The text of the poem is provided for a better understanding. Sculptured chairs imitating the zebu leather are put in angles as monstruous trophies. While reading, the atmosphere can quickly become oppressive but it is voluntary.

While listening and reading this long poem, what we discover are not only the beauty of the verb and diction of the word but also the pure horror hidden in the unfathomable mind of a murderer who is one "Inhabitant", if not the main character. The victim and the killer of the poem are also inhabitants together with an antelope and a city in the background.

When you go out this terrific boudoir, you are bombarded by images and noises of the film created by Artavazd Peleshyan. This film is an ode to the wild nature launched into frenzied courses and flights for escaping an invisible danger. You’re surrounded by sounds of bullets and shots. Around the room, there are paintings of Francis Bacon, David Lynch... And you understand that this second part of the space with a lot of deformations (images, faces and body...) is the deformation of the world made by the unhealthy living soul who is living in the boudoir...

Behind a separation, here is the third division of the space : the infinity of cosmos, of the universal matter, together with the play of light of some valuable pieces as stars in the sky...

It’s over, the visitor returns his steps and contemplates the truth of the artwork he made part for a moment: the artist has gathered many artworks giving the composition a general meaning: he created his picture, his own vision of the world. Certainly it’s a fleeting picture but the message is strong and will persist for the visitors who make the effort to decrypt it. Men who are the inhabitants of the earth are monstrous because they destroy all things, they have forgotten the fundamentals regarding humanity, nature and animals. They have forgotten the "pure beings" they were once. The final tells a new future is watching them from the cosmos that will change the terrestrial matter to try to make it more beautiful than ever.

At terrificator.com’s, we know from a long long time, that daily reality is worse than your worst nightmare.

Good night my little creatures, but before going to bed, read below the story about the girl, the killer and the antelope. I wish you a good nightmare!

Falling backwards Once Again
Text by Patti Smith and David Lynch

Falling backwards one again
Falling backwards one again
In the street the people moved through the raining night
More like shadows than humans walking in their regular way
Through dark streets and thick black fog
Rolling in, closing in around the lights,
Making them dim
So no one could see them clearly at all
And it was at this time
I saw an antelope and he began to speak
I spoke with him and he spoke very softly
As if somehow afraid anyone else hearing
Would hear what he was saying
I was little wonder really because this antelope was making significant negative remarks about the people of the city
Comparing all to times gone by when there were shepherds and when then were those who tendent the fields nearby
And the interiors of the city buildings
And how they were almost at once in the same place
I listened carefully to the antelope leaning in
I could smell his breath as he spoke of the ones nearby
Those who were wet and filthy, rolling near the gutter,
and whose eyes were wild and filled with tears
And their teeth were filled with rot
And they were discovered
Their teeth were unclean
And I began to see that this antelope possessed a very keep understanding of the human condition in this section of the city,
The old section where humanity made the same mistakes
And strived in the same manner
And did what they could and what they should
Until they were so worn and burned out
There was no more energy to do what they had to do
And this antelope had watched this absurd parade for ages
And he came to the conclusion
That there was very little if any hope for these people
And I merged with him
I merged with him mentally
And was just about to voice my agreement
When I saw her, the girl I had come into the city to find
She had left the house that morning, crying as she slammed the door
I saw her, the girl,
The girl that I had come
I had come here to look for, to find
And she,
She had been crying and I wondered : would I ever
see her again?
And this filled me with such an aching in my heart
And I was so sad
And my whole body was aching
And I looked across and she was walking with someone else
Walking with someone like she was in love
Like a young school girl
Holding his hand
As is she had known him her whole life
And I looked at her and she looked at me
She looked right through me
I screamed out her name
I screamed for her
And then she pretended not to recognize me
And for a moment it was so... it was so profound that
I thought perhaps it was not her
But it was her
It was the girl, I saw that knowing smile of her
Hiding behind her mask of a face
I... I was sure it was her
I... I had just last night proposed marriage to her
And she, yes, she, she, she professed her love to me
She said she loved me
Yet truly when I looked in her eyes
I saw fear, a terrible fear
I was, it was so, so deep
That her heart nearly rose in her throat
And her skin was the color of dust
It was pale and sickly sick with fear
So much fear that her heart almost burst in her skin
And yet I proposed to her
Believe it
Believe it
And saw love and fear so perfectly merged
That it shot out brightly in the room
And it explosed as a bomb of blood
Coating all the four walls, the ceiling and the floor
With fresh arterial blood and fragments of flesh
And they stuck to the wall and some forensic scientists would have examined it with pleasure
But another with a purer heart
Anyone who had a heart
Would see the horror in her face
And the tears sliding from her eyes and falling down her cheeks
Some being brushed away by fingers with bright red nails
Moving like a blurred fan in front of full breast rising and falling
And rising and falling
Anxious, anxious
And the tension growing
And her eyes,
Her eyes opening
As if shut by a bullet or a bolex
And such madness on this most beautiful face
A face worthy of Raphael
A face of such purity, such sweetness
And yet filled with crippling fear
A fear, a suicidal fear where vows erupt
And I proposed to her
And I saw her eyes love and horror swimming together
Swimming naked together
And I reached out
And took her face in my hands
And I pulled her mouth toward mine
And I realized that this had all played out before
It had all been shot before
The blood, the heart, the love
All part of human history
Turning, spiraling
And she, this beautiful girl
Was the same who had been stolen by thieves
Had been taken hostage
Had been taken through the fields to an outpost
Like young Marie, like young Marie in the Bresson movie
Where the donkey just lies there and weeps
Whether you can tell whether the donkey is laughing or crying
As they take Marie, they take her over and over and over
And the same girl, the same girl that I had propsed to
Was taken and brutally beaten
And taken over and over
Until when the hoodlums slept
She curled into a fetal position
And retreated into her own sleep
Where dreams came and gave her a chance to espace to a better time and a better place
And she would remember James
James, the lover of her life
James, when she first saw him
He came over to her
And he just stared at her for several minutes as if he was in a trance
And she looked at his eyes
And she couldn’t tell whether he was laughing or crying
And her whole experience, she knew, was just a replay
For James, who she remembered falling in love with,
Was James also a killer
He had killed seven women
After torturing them
He tortured them and he laughed and cried simultaneously
Looking into their eyes that were bright and filled with love and horror
And she looked at him again
In a way to see if his face reflected a person who was good and who she could trust
Because in that moment, when he came to her,
Everything stopped,
Time was like gelatin, soft, sweet,
Without time, infinite, finite
Like falling numbers
And she tried to find that part of him
She looked in his eyes
Could he be a man who was good and be trusted
And it was then that her heart started beating
Her heart started beating so hard
She thought it would explode
And shoot blood over all the four walls and ceiling and floor
And bits of flesh too which would stick in some random pattern around the room
And some forensic scientists would examine it with pleasure
And she saw that everything was in replay
In her everything was in replay
All of human history, all of human history
That played over and over
Making mistakes
Changing and trying and building up energy
Just as the antelope said
And now she knew
She knew he was already
Who she saw he would be
He was very much in that dark forest
And she was very much in the same forest with him
Last night when he proposed to her
He did propose to her
Vows erupted from his corrupt and beautiful face
And came her way and filled her with fear and pleasure
She felt once again the dread
The feeling she could never escape
His grip, he’s somehow managed to hold her
He’s somehow managed
To hold a part of her and
She just wished with all her might that she could just die
Or fly away to a completely new and different world
Where she could be safe without fear
And she curled in a fetal position
When the thieves and the hoodlums were sleeping
And dreamed and she saw his face
And other faces with other names
Saints and murderers, Paul, the dentist
Saint Paul of the Flying Saucers
Paul, pallor, Pallbearers,
Her sleep which began sweetly, kept shifting
And she saw a face,
One with kindness
Another with benevolence
Another cruelty
Face upon face
Mask upon mask
A multitude of masks
And the history of each face
Breathing upon her
Touching her lips
And history repeating itself
And reinventing itself
And the angles
The angles of everything, perception,
Every angle like a cubist violin playing the saddest song ever heard
Then, the sweetest...
And the she dreamed of the antelope
Whispering
She couldn’t make out what he said
But she felt, she felt the animal closing
Pressing against her
But she was not afraid
The merging of human and animal
Came from far far away
Somewhere else further than the universe
From the deepest recesses of human consciousness
Into unconsciousness
Into a void in which she could float,
There was no animosity, no love
They were pure beings
And then, she suddenly knew
That that would end
And she would be all too human
And that night was a long one
She realized
She realized that truly
Everything she had experienced
All the horror was still going on
It had not ended at all
And at any moment this man could appear once again
This man who disturbed her no end to the point where she could not breath
And she fell out, she fell out of that universe to the floor
And she passed out completely
In that state, the dreams came running in her mind like the herd of antelope
And they ran and she ran with them
And they went one again into the city
Filled with human beings they, the antelope, professed to dislike it
Always they were drawn to them like iron filings to a strong magnet
So strong, so strong in fact that many antelope dreamed of pressing themselves hard against human beings in such a way to become one with them
In such a way to become one with them
And many times, many times human beings that were attached like this from the antelope
Not understanding how the antelope wished his oneness
The human beings lashed out and struck out or shot or strangled the antelope
Or stabbed the antelope with their jackknives
These jackknives were becoming very popular with the human beings living at this time
Not that there were only antelope to consider
Sometimes they just, they just lashed out against anyone
They pout on their leather jackets these hoodlums
And they started with jackknives and penknives
And then they preferred their switchblades
These switchblades preferred they pulled out of their shafts
And they walked the streets looking for girls until they found the one
And they proposed to her as a multitude
And they had their way with her
One by one
And the human beings would nod their heads
Sometimes they would stop
They were so tired
They were so tired even of their own pleasure
And they realized that the antelope was revealing a kind of love between man and animal
Human beings and antelope and sometimes a sexual feeling could arise
As it would be at these times the antelope would leap at the human beings and press itself hard on the human being
And it was the phenomenom which she was thinking about and he was thinking about
They were both thinking about it
James
He who was not James, she who had been proposed to
They looked at one another
They had walked out of separate universes
And they fell into a trance
Maybe a minute, maybe an hour went by
And old rock-and-roll songs spiraled the bright
Persian sky
Songs like a thousand stars
Pretty little songs
Innocent
Innocent as a prom dress
Innocent as a child’s ballet slippers
They saw each other
And stepped back in this trance
Starting light and pink, became blue
And bluer and bluer and so, so sad
And they, they, they knew what each other was thinking about
He was thinking about the antelope pressing against her body
When she suddenly saw his right hand
And it had blood on it
And a deep gash across the thumb and into the palm
She looked at his palm, the nails
She just thought about her fist holy communion and
imagined them pushing the nails through the hands of Christ
And he was no Christ but his palm was bleeding
And it filled her with such compassion
But she knew what he was going to do
But wasn’t Christ filled with compassion when he held out his hands
And when they pierced them so deeply ?
She held out her hands and looked at him
She knew what he would do
She loved him anyway
And he saw that look
That look that filled him with revulsion
Love and fear
Swimming naked together
He saw that she had seen the hand
And immediately he left the room and he returned with both their winter coats
"Put this on and come with me," he said
"Come on".
They put on their jackets and they descended the stairs
They descended the stairs to the street
And it was old and dark when thy stepped out into the night
And as they went down she noticed the clock on the bell tower
And it struck midnight
It struck midnight and then it struck 2 in the afternoon
And the it struck 1:45
It struck 8:15
It just kept striking
All different times, all different places
Still it was and as it was a long time ago
As it will be a long time coming
"Put your coat on, come on"
"Put your coat on and come with me"
And she put a coat on
And twelve loud clangs echoed out into the city
And she had the strong feeling that she would never hear the clock strike "one"
She had the strong feeling of the approaching evil of
James
For James had been haunting her dreams more and more these nights
And she shivered even more as they walked up the street
Not as much from the cold but from the chilling thoughts rushing through her mind
Because, she had...
Hadn’t she put her coat on before?
Hadn’t, hadn’t she put her coat on before and hadn’t he
said "hey, put your coat on"
And, and they, they went down the stairs
And the clock, she heard the clangs, it says
One, two, three, four, five, six, six, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven
She, she knew she would never hear it strike "one" again
And they rounded the corner
And thoughts were rushing
And her heart started pounding as they rounded the corner
Her heart started pounding
They rounded the corner at a point where much of the city could be seen below
And he turned and looked at her and she looked at him anew
And it was him, it was, of course, it was James
He must have followed her this afternoon
He still had the key
And she had noticed blood on the front of the doorknob
And it was all becoming clear now
And he was staring at her, just staring
And it seemed to go on for so long
The trance like when they first met
And he said "Just like old times"
"What? What? Can’t you just leave me alone? Can’t you just stay away?"
She tried to move
But the growing fear rippled through her and she staggered
And she fell, she fell to the ground
A white deer is dancing in her eyes
No
Not a deer, fear
It was the same, the same
It was the same, the same
James leaned over her and reached for her throat with both hands
She pushed him away screaming
Not with her mouth but with her eyes
Now white hot as if she had only glowing white eyes
Her mouth opened like a torn hole in her boodless face
He pulled out his jackknife
And he flipped it open with a quick violent motion
And then he arched his arm back and went to stab her in the chest
And both of her hands flew out defensively
Her hands flew out
And she offered them to him
She offered him the hands that had been offered all through time
In supplication
In fear
In vindication
In surrender
And he went to stab her in the chest
He pulled out his jackknife
And flipped it open with a quick violent motion
And then arched his arm back and went to stab her in the chest
Both her hands flew out defensively
And the knife sliced her fingers then entered into her chest
Then so violently did he pluge the knife that his hands slid
When the knife struck bone
And he sliced his right hand deeply through the thumb and the palm
The antelope approached now
James turned and ran
The antelope leaned in
And she could almost feel his breath on her face
And smell him
He was so close
She could not tell whether the antelope was laughing or crying
But he spoke very softly to her
Once again making significant negative remarks about the people in this part of the city.

Falling Backwards Once Again
Sound recording of the concert given by David Lynch and Patti Smith
at the Fondation Cartier on October 28, 2011
as part of the "Mathematics, A Beautiful Elsewhere" Exhibition