The Spirits of Dead Cities 1886

Editor: Félix Buhot's "The Spirits of Dead Cities" is a haunting image, and I get a strong sense of foreboding from it. How do you interpret the symbolism here? Curator: Well, it feels to me like Buhot is inviting us to eavesdrop on a conversation between worlds, doesn't it? The boundaries between life and death, the past and the present, become wonderfully blurred. Do you see the owl, a symbol of wisdom and death, perched on the left? Editor: Yes, now that you mention it, it gives the piece a watchful, almost ominous quality. Curator: Exactly! And the city in the background, shrouded in mist, seems both present and spectral, a memory clinging to the earth. The bat, perhaps, is a psychopomp accompanying the spirits as they move to the afterlife. What do you think? Editor: I never considered the bat in that way before, but it fits perfectly. It’s like Buhot captured a single frame from a vivid dream or nightmare. Curator: Precisely! Buhot’s captured that liminal space where the veil between worlds is thin, inviting our own spirits to wander a bit.