Errant Lines

Lines can evoke notions of form, contour, and trains of thought; they may indicate order or randomness, continuity or division, give rise to complex meanings or shapeless chaos. Their ‘breadthless length’ (Euclid) serves as a foundation for geometry, the basis of alphabets and writing, the elementary component of visual representation; it provides the frame for musical notation, the basic unit of poetry and literature, the possibility of political division and segregation, and a fundamental resource for philosophical and historical reflections on the nature of movement, temporality, (dis)continuity, and change. What is the red thread running through these different notions and manifestations of linearity? Or does their multiplicity point to the boundless variety of possible trajectories and discontinuities already present within the one-dimensionality of the single line? Is every line a wandering away from another, or an extension of the line’s innate errant potential, its play of tangential forces? The ICI Library Event explored the creative and menacing potential of the notion of lines within the context of the core project, ERRANS.

Part 1
A Nonlinear Panel
With Rosa Barotsi, Pearl Brilmyer, James Burton, Antonio Castore, Maria José De Abreu, Preciosa Regina de Joya, Walid El-Houri, Ewa Majewska, and Zairong Xiang

Part 2
To Draw a Line: Writing Performance with Axel Malik
Over the course of the last 25 years, Axel Malik has explored, in his daily writing practice, varied potentials of the scriptural line freed from all signification. He will demonstrate his ‘scriptural method’ and present a single canvas on which he wrote for an entire year. Malik will be introduced by Claire Nioche-Sibony.