Le pays où tout est permis

by Sophie Podolski

This bilingual publication offers an unprecedented exploration of the work of Belgian poet and artist Sophie Podolski (1953–1974), who has lingered in obscurity since her untimely death at the age of 21. Podolski’s work is emblematic of a time marked by sexual liberation, antipsychiatry, and youth disenchantment. As a self-taught writer and artist, she wrote in an uninhibited and provocative style about life, popular culture, and conformist society. While she was known primarily as a poet during her lifetime, this book places emphasis on Podolski’s visual practice and highly personal iconography. As well as the original manuscript of her only book, The Country Where Everything Is Permitted (1972), this book showcases Podolski’s remarkable body of graphic works, with more than 100 drawings and some of her earliest etchings.
 

Genres: Poetry, France

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Sophie Podolski (8 October 1953 – 29 December 1974) was a Belgian poet and graphic artist. She published only one book during her short lifetime, Le pays où tout est permis (1972; The Country Where Everything Is Allowed), in which the poems were reproduced in her own artistic handwriting for its original 1972 edition (a censored, typeset edition followed in 1973).

Sophie Podolski studied etching at the Académie de Boitsfort and was associated with the artistic community at Montfaucon Research Center.

Podolski had schizophrenia and spent time in psychiatric clinics in Paris and Brussels. She attempted suicide in Brussels on 19 December 1974 and died 10 days later as a result. The method is not disclosed in articles about her.

Podolski left a number of unpublished poems and graphic artworks which were posthumously published by Marc Dachy. Her work entitled Sophie Podolski Snow Queen was published as a special issue (no. 6, 1980) of the literary magazine Luna Park.

Her poetry was much admired by the novelist and poet Roberto Bolaño, who referenced Podolski in his novels The Savage Detectives, Antwerp, and Distant Star, and in his short stories "Vagabond in France and Belgium" and "Dance Card" (both collected in Last Evenings on Earth).

Reviews

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part art book, and part bio/examination of her work, Le pays où tout est permis is a bilingual edition of Belgian artist Sophie Podolski’s “graphic poetry”, which mixes art with writing. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, and committed suicide by defenestration (like Unica Zürn) at the age of only 21, this reissue shines a much needed light on the precocious outsider, whose surrealist artwork explores erotic imagery and mental illness in highly imaginative otherworldly depictions that defy reality.

Podolski also plays with different genres in the creation of her art. One can clearly see the influence of pop-art, and she makes some attempts at collaging. There is also a short comic strip about a one-legged man born out of a sardine can who later marries himself. But no matter what she is drawing from, Podolski always adds her own spin when she constructs her unique worlds without limits.



Seeing as there were a number of contributors (including Chris Kraus), some of the critical examination of Podolski’s work was a little repetitive at times, but there was still a lot of variety as the contributors all came from different backgrounds, and so there were also in-depth explorations of Podolski’s drug use and mental illness by those contributors specialised in those areas.



Also note that not all of Podolski’s writing is translated in this book. Some portions are, but if you were wanting to enjoy this to its fullest capacity, it’d probably be best to know French, not only to comprehend the meaning of her words, but for the sheer joy of deciphering Podolski’s cursive griffonage.



3-3.5