Fin-de-siècle vibratie-manie

Fin-de-siècle vibration-mania. Synesthetic light projection in the wake of Jean Delville’s art

Jean Delville (1867-1953), a Belgian symbolist artist and a pivotal figure in fin-de-siècle occultism in Brussels, was inspired by numerous synaesthetic performances: shadow plays, serpentine dance, and colour organs. These performances were perceived as musical paintings or experiments with colour-hearing, audition-colorée, or farbenhören and often made use of projection techniques. This contribution sheds light on the artistic, spiritual, and even therapeutic context of synaesthetic projection closely intertwined with Jean Delville’s interests and activities. It demonstrates how the lantern projector turned into a ‘magic lantern’ in synaesthetic performances. By materialising (in)visible vibrations, it paradoxically propagated an antimaterialist vision of life.