Blumen sind geil

2020

By Tine Melzer & Markus Kummer.

Say it through the flower–who last said it in all seriousness? The language of flowers seems to be a final code of civilizing innocence. Why outsource feelings to plants? How to outsource our doubts to words? Flowers are out, soon we will need them again. They are remnants of a colorful nature and irritate with their reproductive openness. They are products of globalized trade and are everywhere where people celebrate, praise, seduce, and mourn. Which flowers are suitable for divorce? Which wreath do we wish to place on our own grave?

Flowers are beautiful–and simple: explosions in slow motion, and cut flowers continue to grow in the vase. Flowers are cool (“Blumen sind geil”) because they accompany our cultural codes. They traditionally convey very specific meanings according to the language of flowers. In the book “Blumen sind geil”, literary short texts come together with a photographic image series of stagings that complement, disturb and distort each other. A pretty-unheard book.

Design: Anja Lutz // Art Books
Assistenz: Giulia Siviero
Fotografie: Mathias Zuppiger, Zürich
Bildbearbeitung: Johann Hausstätter, Berlin
Papier: Grenita 135 g/m2 und 250 g/m2
Druck: Florjan ˇcicˇ Tisk, Slowenien
Typografie: Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk, wobei die Buchstaben des Wortes „Blumen“ durchgehend im Condensed Schnitt gesetzt sind.
ISBN 978-3-96216-003-6
The Green Box
Kunst Editionen, Berlin
www.thegreenbox.net
© 2020, The Green Box, Tine Melzer, Markus Kummer
Herzlichen Dank an:
Thomi Wolfensberger, David Zürcher, Dorothea Franck, Leonhard Hoefter, Renata Burckhardt, Ruth Kummer,
Frans Oosterhof

Quellen:
Slavoj Žižek on the horror of tulips,
In: Sophie Fiennes’ “The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema”, 2006 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0828154/
Clemens Zerling: Lexikon der Pflanzensymbolik, 2013 Darmstadt: Synergia