GYMNOPEDIES *
“Light and atypical parts.”
In tribute to Erik Satie and La Monte Young
“Let go of a butterfly (or any number of butterflies) where the performance takes place: it will end when the butterflies have left the room. “[La Monte Young Composition 1960 # 5]
Lines. Races. Eclipses. Boxed circles. – The architecture of lines has been set in motion. A shiver runs through the paper, the plan, the design field. A welt. A sudden fault. A mazurka is sketched out in a frenzied pace, followed by a long – very long – glissando …
We find ourselves in the heart of a ballet of writing and of drawing, of pointed stylus, of tracing lines and of computer programming. This allows to consider hazards, regrets, twists and turns, streams of hard lines … outlines, waves, loops. – Cowards. Frayed. Or well organised. Tight. – Pierre Braun has fun with numbers, algorithms and mathematical repetition.
Sine-shaped pears, bells tinkling. Formal samples. – The lines are made to turn back on themselves and then repeat. Between scribbles and Cy Twombly, they remember worlds which have already been wandered in … and anticipate what will come next. A fog of lines is gradually being built. And subtle cobwebs.
The chatty line, tweets, prides itself on interlacing. Other times, it squeaks, cries, hoots, hums a forgotten sonatina, an emerged refrain from the depths of the machine and program … The organisation chart of the course is measured by the rhythm of its various movements.
“Untitled (wing of forgetfulness)” strips of torn paper / pages of hidden daily newspapers, superimposed, pinned /canvas. “Sinusoids 1 & 2”, “Squared Spirals”, “Outlines and modules”, “Passages”, “Frequencies”, “Loops”, “Writings”, “Untitled (a_rand_walk1)”, “Drawing with a computer” [replayed and reproduced by a 5 year old child], “Untitled (wave)”, “Untitled (interferences),” “Untitled (non-inventoried),” gouache on canvas, “Curation (current culture in Rennes)” torn flyers, pinned on canvas, “Histogram (Untitled)” strips of torn paper pinned on canvas.
As with Paul Klee, the line is running, walking, travelling. Cheerful. Adventurous. Mischievous. – Protecting its secrets, it frequently comes back on itself in a zigzag, wraps itself around its axis, folds around its centre, joins these embryo lines that form a complete partition, a slow [or live] choreography.
There are few colours in this universe. Time and atmosphere are “graphic” and “grey” the black line walking on a white paper, the grey line on a black background. – Passing by, a child – throughout the composition and the tune of Cosi Fan Tutte – there is, however, a colourful hoop which is built. Chromatic wheel made of “little papers” recovered and re-cycled [in the literal sense of the term] and an endless wheel. “Colourful origin” These scraps of paper are organized wisely: from blue to green – through the various shades of purple, red, orange, yellow.
Entrechats. Two steps, three or four. Gymnopaedias. – The childhood of the line is as found. Lines and sounds intertwine, forming agglomerates, conglomerates. It is this, the lump of the line: its intensity.
Pierre Braun’s work is made of silence [Untitled], of withdrawn lyrics and graphic onomatopoeias which were the prerogative of so-called “first” or “archaic” cultures – and which we would now only be able to find in comics, had computer culture not been so overwhelmingly seized. Splash … hhhhh, twittt … ttttt, vroom … mmmmm, gulp … ppppp. Strokes, embryos lines – like toddlers – hold hands and sing in unison … There is humour in the sarabande of these lines and these endlessly repeated notes …
Pick. Gather. Collect. Re-collect. The memory of algorithm is filled with repetition, of persistence. Constant appearing lines, sound … prolonged … perpetuated … corrected… underlined … accompanied … rounded … stretched … launched in a continuous loop …folded [as with Varèse] into a trapezium … in staggered rows. They spread, divide, subdivide, add, multiply and re-multiply, subtract secretly to themselves and then… reappear Triumphant. Perennials. – La Monte Young’s butterfly hesitates to fly away…
* “Gymnopedies” Piano Works by Erik Satie (1888)
Florence de Mèredieu
