Artist: Mar Reykjavik
Exhibition title: Principi, principi, principi
Venue: Fundació Joan Brossa, Barcelona, Spain
Date: January 11 – Fabruary 25, 2024
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Fundació Joan Brossa, Barcelona
In principi, principi, principi, Mar Reykjavik proposes a specific communication system in which a suspended narrative is traversed by seven sprouts – seven intact filmic bodies. These storylines collectively shape a singular narrative sprout: its relevance is solely dictated by its inherent drive to manifest. Seven beginnings coalesce to form an autonomous organism from which the phenomenon of emergence – the sprout – is intended to be emancipated from its reliance on other narrative elements.
Root of chicory, chamomile flower
1
Today I woke up seven times. I had breakfast seven times. I showered, got dressed, and brushed my teeth seven times, and I went down to the street seven times. On my way to the station, I crossed a very long park – full of trees and fountains and children running and jumping – seven times. Then I got on the train seven times and sat down seven times. I opened the book to page twenty-one. The light in the carriage flickered.
3
“Once upon a time there was the thing. And in the end, there was also the thing.”
2
[Open your mouth. Wider, a little wider. Let the words fall out by their own weight. Let them spill down your chest waist thigh. Now twist your wrist: “scorpion”; “trapeze.” Slower, slower. “Amulet,” “wicker.” “Hopefully.” Like this? Like this. Now stretch your arm. Snap your fingers. Jump. “One, two, orange, arpeggio.” Again, again. “Three, four. Secret. Coriander.” Now whistle, hum, sing. Make a face; furrow your brow. “Hello, yes. Hey, hey.” Arch your back. Raise your eyebrows. Tap your feet. “Once upon a time.” Wait, wait. Is it done? It’s done. And now? Now nothing. Now nothing].
4
Look at us closely! We have come to translate the secret algebra in which things stated themselves; to rescue the word from the belly of the beast. In our realm of faith, the liturgy of the sprout is revered. Listen: There is only certainty in the undefined, in the yet of the form – its ever- burning once upon a time. Look at us closely! Look at us closely! We have come to proclaim the sufficiency of what is born. Hear us: In our spineless voice, a fine gold sadness is celebrated.
5
Here is the before of the thing! Anaximander – root of chicory, chamomile flower – your celestial sphere continues to rotate to the tune of a fire flute; we continue to dance in other languages on a white crocheted tapestry. You were right: Things are born from their own beginnings. Help us protect their singularity; their commitment to the sprout. Against totality, against straight sense, against the fictitious grammars of the narrative. Our only commitment is to the sprout. Warn the Lacedaemonian that we are in motion. We are in motion! Our will ploughs through language clinging to the tip of an arrow. I promise you that someday we will invent affection.
6
In Principi, a motor system that sustains and suffices itself is articulated, a body that weaves its own wrapping, that carries itself in its own arms – “without too much tenderness,” Beckett would say, “but faithfully, faithfully”; tautological, sufficient. A political body that is excripted in the present, and in doing so, claims its spacing, its singularity, and its will to participate in the world as a formulator of meanings. A principi (in Valencian, “principi” means both “beginning” and “principle”) stretched over time in which the two epistemic dimensions that define it are affectionately linked: the historical, serial position and the moral and political position.
7
In principi, principi, principi, Mar Reykjavik proposes a specific communication system in which a suspended narrative is traversed by seven sprouts – seven intact filmic bodies. These storylines collectively shape a singular narrative sprout: its relevance is solely dictated by its inherent drive to manifest. Seven beginnings coalesce to form an autonomous organism from which the phenomenon of emergence – the sprout – is intended to be emancipated from its reliance on other narrative elements.
