Walls
'Granted there is a wall, what's going on behind it?'
Jean Tardieu
I put picture on the wall. Then I forget there is a wall. I no longer know what there is behind the wall, I no longer know there is a wall, I no longer know this wall is a wall. I no longer know what a wall is. I no longer know that in my apartment there are walls, and that if there weren't any walls, there would be no apartment. The wall is no longer what delimits and defines the space where I live, that which seperates it from other places where other people live, it is nothing more than a support for the picture. But I also forget the picture, I no longer look at it, I no longer know how to look at it. I have put the picture on the wall so as to forget there was a wall, but in forgetting the wall, I forget the picture, too. There are pictures because there are walls. We have to be able to forget there are walls, and have found no better way than to do that than pictures. So we need to be continually changing, either the wall or the picture, to be forever putting other pictures up on the walls, or else constantly moving the picture from one wall to another.
'Granted there is a wall, what's going on behind it?'
Jean Tardieu
I put picture on the wall. Then I forget there is a wall. I no longer know what there is behind the wall, I no longer know there is a wall, I no longer know this wall is a wall. I no longer know what a wall is. I no longer know that in my apartment there are walls, and that if there weren't any walls, there would be no apartment. The wall is no longer what delimits and defines the space where I live, that which seperates it from other places where other people live, it is nothing more than a support for the picture. But I also forget the picture, I no longer look at it, I no longer know how to look at it. I have put the picture on the wall so as to forget there was a wall, but in forgetting the wall, I forget the picture, too. There are pictures because there are walls. We have to be able to forget there are walls, and have found no better way than to do that than pictures. So we need to be continually changing, either the wall or the picture, to be forever putting other pictures up on the walls, or else constantly moving the picture from one wall to another.
We could write on our walls (as we sometimes write on the front of houses, on fences round buildings sites and on the walls of prisons), but we do it only very rarely."
Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Georges Perec, p39
Image from AJ,26.07.07
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