Field trip write up

We went last wednesday on a field trip to the walker art center and the bell museum
The installation at the walker art center i found the most interesting was a film and framed papers by Marcel Broodthaers.
I wrote down one of his writings so i could remember it.
"Writing is not ment to be read
it is rather to be seen
in other words to be
witness as writing
still I have to write
in order to hide writing
It is crucial to write
yet my writing can't be read.
The reason why writing disappears
is not because the rain washes
away my letters because its filmed"
M.B.


Marcel Broodthaers
La pluie (Projet pour un texte)
BE, 1969, 16 mm, b/w, sound, 3’
Broodthaers is filmed in his back garden, while absorded in the process of writing. Equipped with paper, ink and a feather pen he begins to scribble when it starts to rain. The text is constantly erased, but the artist doesn’t seem to mind. A melancholic and allegoric reflection on artistic production, authorship and cinema, that particular medium which constantly doubts between stasis and movement, between writing and erasing.-Iris Balija


I liked the way it was filmed. He tried so hard to keep writing in the rain but his writings showed nothing due to the washing away effect of the water. He does it over and over with different letters and then frames them to show the mess he created.