À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris ?
Year: 1982
Author: Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 – 1918)
Artist: Alecos Fassianos (1935 – 2022)
Publisher: Fata Morgana
Alecos Fassianos, etching on title page, À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris?
Artist’s books are distinguished not only by their illustrations, but also by their text. À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris?, published in 1982 by Fata Morgana, is a remarkable example of this: it brings together a forgotten pantomime by the famous poet Guillaume Apollinaire with thirteen original etchings by the Greek artist Alecos Fassianos.
Guillaume Apollinaire was one of the most important innovators in French literature at the beginning of the twentieth century. He was friends with great artists, such as Picasso and Derain, introduced the term ‘surrealism’ and published influential collections such as Alcools (1913) and Calligrammes (1918). His work straddles the realms of poetry, visual art and theatre. His plays, including Les Mamelles de Tirésias, also bear witness to his desire to break down the boundaries of traditional art forms.
A forgotten pantomime
Unlike ‘normal’ mime, which expresses emotions or thoughts without any language or props, pantomime is louder, more musical and sometimes even features spoken dialogue. À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris? was created in July 1914, just before the First World War. Apollinaire collaborated on it with a remarkable group of avant-garde artists: Francis Picabia was to design the sets, Alberto Savinio to write the music and Marius de Zayas to direct the production. The project was intended as a revolutionary spectacle designed to surprise and even shock the audience. However, due to the war, it was never actually staged. The manuscript disappeared from view and was only rediscovered decades later by the American literary scholar Willard Bohn.
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Alecos Fassianos, etchings in À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris? (p. 10–11)
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Alecos Fassianos, etching in À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris? (p. 13)
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Alecos Fassianos, etching in À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris? (p. 29)
The pantomime is based on Apollinaire’s poem ‘Le musician de Saint-Merry’ from Alcools. Just like the poem, an enigmatic parade of characters unfolds as it moves through the city. The story has been deliberately kept simple and consists of a series of scenes in which chance and absurdity alternate. It is noteworthy that Apollinaire added an extra final scene for the theatre. In it, Napoleon III appears, described as ‘le souverain automatique’ (the automatic sovereign), an unexpected figure, who pushes the already wondrous plot even further into the realms of fantasy and satire.
Almost childlike etchings
For the 1982 edition, Apollinaire’s text was entrusted to Alecos Fassianos (or Alekos Fassianos), a renowned Greek artist of the twentieth century and a great admirer of Apollinaire. He even posed for a photograph next to the monument that Picasso had dedicated to Apollinaire. After completing his studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Fassianos settled in Paris, where he encountered the international art world. His work, rooted in Greek culture, was populated above all by mythological figures with powerful contours and flowing hair.
This is also the case with À quelle heure, where Fassianos’ contribution consists of thirteen original colour etchings. The etchings are sometimes literal illustrations of the text. For instance, the fluttering flag on the frontispice of scene 2, translates the scene description literally into an image: ‘Sur le rideau noir – toujours baissé – passe horizontalement (de droite à gauche) une lanière de toile blanche où est écrite la date : le 21 du mois de mai 1913. Les lettres, majuscules et en caractères d’imprimerie, sont noires ; les chiffres sont rouges.’ (On the black curtain – still drawn – runs horizontally (from right to left) a strip of white cloth on which the date is written: 21 May 1913. The letters are in black block letters; the numbers are red.’). Notably, the text in a number of illustrations is mirror-imaged; Fassianos does not seem to have taken this into account when engraving his etchings. Fassianos’ colourful style also found a place in this book, with the plates printed in turquoise, green, ochre, dark blue, red and a sort of rusty orange. With their simple lines, the illustrations appear almost naïve, which contrasts with the enigmatic nature of the pantomime.
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Alecos Fassianos, etching in À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris? (p. 7)
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Alecos Fassianos, etching in À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris? (p. 25)
The first Dada-play (La Première Pièce Dada)
Fata Morgana’s edition includes a separate essay by Willard Bohn, entitled Apollinaire et le mélodieux ravisseur. He discusses the development of the manuscript and situates the work within Apollinaire’s artistic development.
An interesting detail is that some researchers, including Bohn, regard À quelle heure as a sort of laboratory for ideas that Apollinaire would later develop further. Thus, ‘la Première Pièce Dada’ became a source of inspiration for Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and other artists would also draw inspiration from this precursor to the Dada movement.
Several projects from the final years of his life remained unfinished. This pantomime, too, offers a fascinating glimpse into possibilities that were never fully realised. The work thus stands at a crossroad of poetry, visual art, theatre and experiment: precisely the place where Apollinaire most loved to be.
A challenging bookbinding project
Bookbinding of À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris?
At the request of the KB, the book was bound in 2008 by Pau Groenendijk (Mooie Boeken). After completing her teacher training, she studied at the Grafische School. In the 1980s, she travelled to Italy to further her skills in bookbinding. A hallmark of her work is that every bookbinding is unique, even when it forms part of a series for a print run.
For À quelle heure, Groenendijk designed a distinctive binding. She had to take into account both Bohn’s text and a separate section of the thirteen etchings by Fassianos. The text was secured within the binding, whilst the etchings were placed in a separate pocket glued to the inside of the cover. The whole was encased in a striking cover with a crackled texture reminiscent of crocodile leather. The irregular texture and the colour, a bright turquoise, complement Fassianos’ expressive etching style perfectly.
Bibliographical description
Description: À quelle heure un train partira-t-il pour Paris? : pantomime / Guillaume Apollinaire ; gravures par Alecos Fassianos. - Saint-Clément-la-Rivière : Fata Morgana, 1982. 29 p. ; 25 cm.
Printer: Imprimerie de la Charité (typography) and Luc Moreau (etchings)
Edition: 75 copies on vélin d’Arches-paper
This copy: No. 28
Note: Signed by the artist. Also contains Apollinaire et le mélodieux ravisseur by Willard Bohn and a separate section with Alecos Fassianos’ etchings. Bound by Pau Groenendijk (Mooie Boeken), Amsterdam 2008.
Shelfmark: KW KOOPM L 511
References
- Willard Bohn, Apollinaire and the faceless man. The creation and evolution of a modern motif. Cranbury, NJ, Associated University Presses, 1991.
- Willard Bohn, Apollinaire and the international avant-garde. Albany, State University of New York Presses, 1997.
- Willard Bohn, Apollinaire on the edge. Modern art popular culture and the avant-garde. Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2010.
- ‘Alekos Fassianos’ [museum website]
