Lupercalia (lo͞opərkālˈyə) was an ancient Roman festival held annually on the 15th of February.
The ceremony of the festival was intended to secure fertility and keep out evil.
The bright mirror I braved: the devil in it
Loved me like my soul, my soul:
Now that I seek myself in a serpent
My smile is fatal.
Nile moves in me; my thighs splay
Into the squalled Mediterranean;
My brain hides in that Abyssinia
Lost armies foundered towards.
Desert and river unwrinkle again.
Seeming to bring them the waters that make drunk
Caesar, Pompey, Antony I drank.
Now let the snake reign.
A half-deity out of Capricorn,
This rigid Augustus mounts
With his sword virginal indeed; and has shorn
Summarily the moon-horned river
From my bed. May the moon
Ruin him with virginity! Drink me, now, whole
With coiled Egypt's past; then from my delta
Swim like a fish toward Rome.
Ted Hughes, Cleopatra to the Asp
Lupercalia
Feb 14th- March 30th, 2023
Zorya, Langebrug 40A Leiden
Curated by Agata Laika Mendalka
Denise Rosenboom, Up-side-down
Sonia Hensler, Ball
Joyce Lee, Scent of a woman II
Denise Rosenboom, The energy we put out in the world is the energy we get back