Bold Ventures

Broeck, Charlotte Van d

£16.99

In ‘Bold Ventures’, Belgian poet Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal for their architects – architects who either killed themselves or are rumoured to have done so. The buildings range across time and space – from a church with a twisted spire built in 17th-century France to a theatre that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC., and an eerily sinking swimming pool in her hometown of Turnhout. Drawing on a vast range of material, from Hegel and Charles Darwin to art history, stories from her own life and popular culture, patterns gradually come into focus, as Van den Broeck asks: what is that strange life-or-death connection between a creation and its creator?

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Publish Date: 05/05/2022

Description

A spellbinding new talent explores the dark side of creativity through the stories of thirteen tragic architects

‘Bold Ventures resembles a pop version of Iain Sinclair’s psychogeography or Out of Sheer Rage, Geoff Dyer’s anti-biography of DH Lawrence’ Olivia Laing, Guardian

In thirteen chapters, Belgian poet Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal for their architects – architects who either killed themselves or are rumoured to have done so. They range across time and space from a church with a twisted spire built in seventeenth-century France to a theatre that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC., and an eerily sinking swimming pool in her hometown of Turnhout.

Drawing on a vast range of material, from Hegel and Charles Darwin to art history, stories from her own life and popular culture, patterns gradually come into focus, as Van den Broeck asks: what is that strange life-or-death connection between a creation and its creator?

Threaded through each story, and in prose of great essayistic subtlety, Van den Broeck meditates on the question of suicide – what Albert Camus called the ‘one truly serious philosophical problem’ – in relation to creativity and public disgrace. The result is a profoundly idiosyncratic book, breaking new ground in literary non-fiction, as well as providing solace and consolation – and a note of caution – to anyone who has ever risked their hand at a creative act.

‘What a sensible, intelligent and beautiful book’ Stefan Hertmans, author of War and Turpentine

Additional information

Weight 422 g
Dimensions 222 × 144 × 29 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

viii, 290

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

720.922 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K