TEN OLIVETTI TABLES
The sediment of Ten Olivetti Tables (Olivetti Studio 46 on 130×185 mm Olivetti paper, 20-23 April 2020) consists of a disaggregated compound of five languages, namely, English (24 words), German (14 words), Danish (3 words), Swedish (2 words) and Italian (1 word).
The full sequence draws a psychological portrait of the artist at work within the visual metrics of precise formal frames.
The spontaneous metamorphoses of languages follow the law according to which A is or may be B. Hence, the dualism word|mistake gets pointless, replaced by a substantial absoluteness of signifying. Breaching the textual order (orden) it shores up, letting itself being packed, or dropping some letters while transmuting others, the word (ord) triggers the potential of an entirely new text.
Each word is an eagle (ørn) nesting on the top of Yggdrasill, the cosmic tree in Norse mythology. Being capable of flying high without getting blinded by the full radiance of the sun, it grasps the deep truth of spirit, while bearing the vertigo of the world it hovers above.
Writing words thus becomes the absolute and subversive act of him who delivers those very words from languages, before they get used up.
Berlin, 24 April 2020
Minimal lexicon
German: Acht: eight • Dorn: thorn • Drei: three • Eins: one • Einsamkeit: loneliness [ein (one) -sam (having the same nature as) -keit, from -heit, an ancient Germanic term for quality]; Erde: earth, soil • Feind: enemy • Fünf: five • Himmel: sky • Neun: nine • Null: zero • Sechs: six • Sieben: seven • Vier: four
Danish: Ord: word • Orden: order • Ørn: eagle
Italian: rumore: noise
Swedish: * är tyst: * is silent
