Hara‑Kiri n°163 (Avril 1975) is a quintessential mid‑70s issue from the magazine’s photographic era, when Hara‑Kiri embraced surreal visual humour and playful, non‑sexualised nudity to comment on politics, culture, and the seasons. This cover is a pure example of burlesque absurdism — one of the magazine’s most distinctive signatures.

The cover features a woman wearing only a headscarf, sweeping with a broom made entirely of flowers. Her posture, pose and facial expression are deliberately neutral, emphasising the visual joke rather than erotic intent.

The humour comes from the literal interpretation of the headline:

AVRIL – Balayez avec des fleurs(“April – Sweep with flowers”)

This transforms a poetic springtime expression into a deadpan, literal scene.

The result is typical of Hara‑Kiri’s mid‑70s aesthetic: playful, strange, slightly anarchic, and rooted in photomontage‑style conceptual jokes rather than political confrontation.