Invented in the context of the nascent modern society that industrialization gave rise to in 19th century Paris, the term "flâneur" elevated the status of an ambitious good for those who gave up material comforts in pursuit of their artistic and literary dreams.

The poet Charles Baudelaire first mentioned the art of wandering in his book Les Fleurs du Mal. He describes an aimless walker, with no target in the cities, except the simple fact of walking. A roguish and indolent character, perhaps more related to perplexed dandism, the 19th century flâneur finds it stimulating to appreciate the less relevant details.

"To the perfect flâneur, to the passionate observer, it is an immense joy to establish one's abode in the heart of the crowd, between the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fleeting and the infinite. To be far from home, and still feel at home anywhere, to contemplate the world, to be at the center of it, and yet to pass unnoticed - such are the small pleasures of those independent, passionate, incorruptible spirits, which language can hardly attempt to define."
Baudelaire, Flowers of Evil, 1857.

Thus, just as the lover of universal life enters the crowd like a cumulus of electrical energy, Flânerie -the new exhibition of GALERIA AZUR MADRID- introduces us in a hedonistic way to an accumulation of details, nuances and subtle contrasts that surpass the bewildering complexity of reality, embodied in the work of art.

The selection of artworks composing this artistic proposal stems from the juxtaposition of temporal and stylistic strata: paintings, objects and photographs (among others) are proposed to capture our attention, to take us away from the ancient art of "wandering" from one work of art. to another, to witness the random detail and nuance of the moment, while the torrent of crossed perceptions challenges us, arouses curiosity and frayed thought.

This is why Flânerie is the synthesis of the very emergent nature of consciousness, it is the need to evoke and apprehend reality from different points of view.

Ceres Gonzales. Art curator and art critic.
AZUR MADRID GALLERY