Don't miss out on the editor's letters from our latest newsletters!

In this article, you'll find two editorials from our latest newsletters, which were sent out on April 2nd and March 4th, 2024. Moving forward, we will publish our monthly editor's letters, in which we always reflect on recent events, approximately two weeks after the newsletter is out. If you'd like to receive the latest editorials and other updates on Eidolon's work without waiting, please consider subscribing to our newsletter here!

Dear Eidolon Readers, 

We recently marked the Spring equinox a few days ago, which fell on the 20th of March this year. World Storytelling Day coincides with the day of the northward equinox annually, yet cultures have their unique ways of recognising this celestial event since prehistory. The tradition is very much alive in new religious movements, most notably in neopagan groups such as Wicca or Neo-druidism. These groups, diverse as they are, often embrace the nature-oriented beliefs of pre-modern peoples. A prime example is the contemporary observance of equinox or solstice gatherings at megaliths, immense prehistoric stone structures imbued with astrological significance or astronomical alignments. Here, large crowds assemble to witness the dawn breaking, typically in a silent rapture. Postcards featuring these megaliths, along with certain natural rock formations that somewhat capture their enigmatic and elusive power, were fashionable from the late 1890s to the 1920s, especially in France, where more than 150 publishers issued them. The desire for people to capture themselves with ancient structures continues to persist to this day. Numerous social media accounts actively curate images captured at these sites. This is quite telling about the medium of photography: throughout its various developmental stages, it has possessed the ability to create an experience of connection to the rhythms of nature, mysteries, and history.

Photo: @frenchpostcardsofmegaliths

Next month, we will launch Eidolon Club, a diverse event series that aims to explore not just the contemporary significance, but also the universal inherent powers of the medium and its connection to the people who practice it.

Endre Cserna
Head of Programming
2nd of April, 2024

Hello Eidolon Readers,

In a scene of Bertrand Bonello’s latest film, "La Bête," a science fiction romantic drama unfolding across three distinct timelines, including the Belle Époque Paris of 1910, archival photographs of the Great Flood of that year are presented in a slideshow-like fashion. At the time, the relatively new medium of photography fit perfectly into the innovative and forward-thinking era’s zeitgeist, the flood was well-documented and many postcards were published in France showing streets of the "City of Light" overflowed. More than a hundred years later, the rare sights radiate not just nostalgia for a golden age and Art Nouveau catastrophe but an exceptional state that disrupted humdrum routines – the silencing revolution of the Seine took over. One of my favourites of these pictures is the one where the May 1968 slogan, "Sous les pavés, la plage!" ("Under the paving stones, the beach!"), takes on a somewhat verbatim meaning.

Photo: Bibliothèque nationale de France

The flood is not merely a historical backdrop for a looming tragedy in the film but a plot device that communicates the relationships of modern people and the inevitable spectacles they have no control over. This can also readily serve as a metaphor for the media-saturated and technological world, including the flood of images of our non-fictional time as the psychological consequences of technological development play a central role in the plot. The protagonists, portrayed by Léa Seydoux and George MacKay, grapple with their love and emotions in a dystopian, artificial intelligence-controlled near-future where both physical and mental alienation prevail. During the film’s events, they relive their past lives and romances (including the one set in 1910 Paris) as dreamlike medical treatments to unnaturally cure their ability to feel anxiety – a sensation we should not forget is not only a personal but a social and political concern as well. However surreal and mystic this element of the story may seem, an important characteristic of images (whether they be dreams, films, or photographs) can be recognised here: even the most mundane ones have a unique expressiveness that can unexpectedly evoke undiscovered depths and reframe our comprehensions. Perhaps we are just an image (or a flood) away from the unforeseen and the unthought.

Photo: Bibliothèque nationale de France

Warm regards,
Endre Cserna
4th of March, 2024

Highlighted photograph: Fortepan / Judit Hegedűs