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Martin Szekely

March 25 - May 21, 2005

Galerie kreo
31, Rue Dauphine
75006 Paris
+ 33 (0) 1 53 10 23 00
 - des étagères

Measures? Yes.
The height of the shelf is essential, it is the measure of the man and his gesture, his possible extensions, to stretch the arm, the hand; out of these dimensions, either the recourse to problems, elevation, stepladder, ladder, or the unusable. The depth of the shelf is dictated by the use: to store two books slice against slice or an object; a shelf not plated against a wall but accessible by its two faces...

Measures? Yes.
The height of the shelf is essential, it is the measure of the man and his gesture, his possible extensions, to stretch the arm, the hand; out of these dimensions, either the recourse to problems, elevation, stepladder, ladder, or the unusable. The depth of the shelf is dictated by the use: to store two books slice against slice or an object; a shelf not plated against a wall but accessible by its two faces.
A very singular shelf, a dividing wall would be straighter, an architectural element sharing “an always rogue space” (G.Bataille) where the shelf fulfilling its function would tend to disappear, a posture also recurrent in Martin Szekely’s work. This vertical object called a shelf visually obstructs as little as possible, until it disappears at the precise moment when it is fully performing its functions, posing, tidying up, filing books and objects. The unity of the shelf is found in this addition of scattered efforts multiplied by triangles, steps or braces that also become almost invisible on the shelf.

An extreme tightness that signifies and unifies both Martin Szekely’s posture and each of his proposals. This tightening has for measure, here, the limits of the material used, those of its bearing capacity as well as those of its stability or balance, question of the construction or the structure of the object, by which the object can still ensure its function and its uses. One infinitesimal more, one infinitesimal less and it is the collapse or explosion. It is possible to notice that the most successful objects of these last years are undoubtedly those which fully ensure their functions and come to disappear when these same functions are brought to their highest intensity, to their saturation, to their completeness.

Another form of disappearance, this time coming from the material used, especially for the storage units, which are arranged to the point where the zenithal light inside the space, decidedly a thug, makes the furniture scoundrels, literally disappearing momentarily, an intermittency that a photograph alone can reveal or hide.

A shelf is self-constructed, self-generating, always self-reflecting from itself, an element placed, it unfolds, rises; it is in a position of autarky (principle of construction and command) and autonomy (its own law) in the face of the one who claims to have arrogated to himself the illusory right to draw it. It can only be that and nothing else, to the infinitesimal”.

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Christian Schlatter

Exhibition Images

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