Derrida, Dupin, Adami: "Il faut être plusieurs pour écrire" Author(s): Renée Riese Hubert Reviewed work(s): Source: Yale French Studies, No. 84, Boundaries: Writing & Drawing (1994), pp. 242-264 Published by: Yale University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2930189 . Accessed: 19/07/2012 21:01

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http://www.jstor.org RENEE RIESE HUBERT

Derrida,Dupin, Adami: "II fautetre plusieurspour ecrire"'

"LE TRAIT, LA LIGNE" These twowords are frequently used byJacques Derrida in textswhich, moreoften than not, translate or adapt intertexts-allusions as well as quotations without quotation marks. The texts consist of lines, sounds,words which are borrowedor appropriated,transformed, mul- tipliedor fragmented. Since "Le trait,la ligne"simultaneously refer to the acts of drawingand of writing,their implications remain both verbaland visual. La VWriteen peinture comprisesa varietyof texts, notably" + R+," whichoppose conventional and programmaticcriti- cism and make frequentuse of polysemiclanguage. Naturally, the philosopherdeliberately refrains from providing a straightforwardar- gumentconcerning the confrontationor collusion of writingand drawing.His strategiesamount nonetheless to the deliberatetrans- gressionsof borderlines, margins, and frames. If we wereto choosethe obviousexample of Antonin Artaud-on whose careeras man ofthe theaterDerrida wrote two chapters, ("La Parolesoufflee" and "Le The- atrede la cruaute," in L'Ecriture et la difference)and to whose draw- ingshe has recentlydevoted, in collaborationwith Paule Thevenin,a lengthyessay-it would be erroneousto claim thathe separatesthe draftsmanfrom the writer, all themore so becausehe quitefrequently returnsto his previoustexts and theirproblematics while pursuinga

1. , "+ R (par dessus le march), " Derriere le Miroir,no. 214, May 1978, reprintedin La VWrit6en peinture, (: Flammarion, 1979), 175. "One must be several in order to write," The Truth in , trans. Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod (Chicago: Chicago UniversityPress, 1987), 152.

YFS 84, Boundaries: Writing& Drawing, ed. M. Reid, ? 1994 by Yale University.

242 RENEE RIESE HUBERT 243 new line of thought.2In "+R+," Derridalooks at ValerioAdami, a painterwho, like Artaud the writer, comes close to displayinga double talent,for instance when he mercilesslyentraps his reader/viewerin a delightfuldouble bind. Adami "portrays"many writers, notably Wal- terBenjamin, August Strindberg, and SigmundFreud, while introduc- inginto his canvassesand drawingswords, titles, and signaturesthat need to be deciphered.Since Derridafocuses on a painterwho trans- gressesthe boundariesof two languagesor two arts,he makesuse of theirdual inscriptionas a springboardfor his own sometimesparallel inquiries.He thuscontinues the experimentation of his own Glas and Margesde la philosophicin substitutingfor the standard format of the pagespatial columns, cylinders, bifurcations, and othermeans of sub- division.3These writingsconsistently overdetermine concepts of framing.By thus interrelating and interweavingdrawing and writing, Derrida adapts in his own way a not uncommonpractice among twentieth-centuryartists, including, of course, book designers. In fact, some artistsoften rely on an inventedform of writing in such a way thattheir figures, representational or not, lose theirautonomy, imbed- ded as theyare in an illegibletext. In manyinstances, however, the lettersare assembledinto constellationscapable of enhancingrather thaneliminating the figurative element. Cy Twombly'sworks are exemplaryin thisregard since theycon- sist essentiallyof undecipherable scribbles. These handwrittenlines which willfullyrefuse to followthe linearorganization of the page wouldseem to belongto bothwriting and drawing,perhaps mainly for thepurpose of undermining both systems of representation. His ges- turalart relies on and indeedinvokes the movementsof an invisible hand,movements that establish unmediated communication with the viewers/readers,provided they consent to bypassrecognizable alpha- betsand abandonconventional mind-sets. Without relying on always alreadyestablished patterns, Twombly succeeds in producinghis own pulsationallanguage which shows affinities with graffiti, that is with anonymouslyproduced signs defying single authorship so as to pro- pose immediatereactions to an event.

2. Derrida,L'Ecriture et la difference,(Paris: Seuil, 1967); Dessins et portraits, (Paris:Gallimard, 1986). 3. , Glas (Paris:Galilee, 1974); Marges de laphilosophie,(Paris: Editions de Minuit,1972). Claudette Sartiliot's article "Telepathy and Writingin JacquesDerrida's Glas," Paragraph12, (1989): 214-28, has beenparticularly useful to me. 244 Yale FrenchStudies HenryMichaux, a trulymajor double talent,can provideus with equallytelling examples. His imaginarycreatures transcend the usual categoriesof human, animal, and vegetable. His distortedvocal articu- lationsproduce a nondiscourse,his gesturallines waverbetween ab- sence and presence;and his hauntingcreatures, often reduced to a singleline, evolve outside space while defyingthe laws ofgravity. His visual and verbalsubversions undercut the sequentialunfolding of materialor, for that matter,immaterial events. Moving further and furtheraway from mimesis, representation, and narration,Henry Mi- chaux's languages,seemingly stemming from the same body,finally mergeor at least collapse. No less thanTwombly's, Michaux's audi- ence is asked to perceive,read, decipher lines-"le trait,la ligne" pertainingneither to a familiaralphabet nor to a recognizableoutline and defyingthe principlesof repetitionand analysis.The bifolddis- coursethus generated by Twombly'sand Michaux'sgraphic practice can also be derivedfrom the confrontation between Jacques Dupin and ValerioAdami, as well as fromJacques Derrida's dialogue with the painter. Adami'sart, which maintains close tieswith the verbal, has elicited searchingcommentaries from several prominent critics, poets, and philosophers.The Pompidoucatalogue includes texts by HubertDa- misch,Jacques Derrida, Jacques Dupin, and Jean-Francois Lyotard.4 The painter,an Italianby birth,lives in Pariswhere he can engagein fre- quentdiscussions with them. Rather than scrutinize the various types ofcriticism that Adami has generated,whether philosophical, psycho- analytic,deconstructive, or sociopolitical,I preferto focuson there- ciprocalrelationships that have somehowbridged the gap between writingand drawingnot only in Adami'sceuvre, but in thewritings of Dupin and Derrida.5We owe muchof the interchange among them to theGalerie Maeght, which not only organizes exhibits accompanied by exhaustivecatalogues, but publisheslivres de peintre,including two by Adami,and, in Derrierele miroir,features encounters between graphicartists and poets. Fourissues of this illustratedjournal have beendevoted to Adamiso far.

4. Adami (Paris:Centre Georges Pompidou, 1985). Damisch in collaborationwith HenriMartin also publisheda studyentitled Adami (Paris:Maeght, 1974), which in- cludesa lengthycommentary on Viaggio verso Londra comparingthe writing in this paintingto so manyflies (12ff ). 5. JacquesDupin, "Valerio Adami," Derrire le Miroir,no. 188, Nov. 1970;L'Espace autrement dit (Paris:Galilee, 1982). RENEE RIESE HUBERT 245 The Italianartist favors fairly bright but never glaring tones which can hardlybe confusedwith primary or natural colors. His use ofcolor is definedby Derrida as a secondthrust, if not an aftermath:"Color is neveranticipated in it,it neverarrives before the complete halt of the motortrait" (172). Drawing would thus function as theprimary force, shapingand framingfigures by means of black lines. Such painterly devicesas brushstrokesnever appear on Adami'sposterlike surfaces. The engravingentitled Crisis displaysin exemplaryfashion the key characteristicsof Adami's art and its commitmentto bothdrawing and writing(Fig. 1). Clearlycalligraphic letters stand out, while the signa- ture,far more prominently displayed than a meresign of recognition wouldwarrant, is apparentlyinscribed as a potentsource of energy. By theimpact given to and byeach ofits fiveletters, the signature simul- taneouslyasserts continuity and discontinuity. The titleof the work of art,also "handwritten,"inscribed not so much withinthe pictorial surfaceas in a pictorialno-man's-land, participates in the structure insteadof functioningas a merelabel mediatingbetween artist and viewer.The titleand the date, 1927, neither of which occupies a central position,serve as a minimalnarrative substitute for an absenttext that the viewer,reduced to whateverclues s/hecan assemble,feels com- pelledto piece togetherand embroider.The writtenword "Crisis" not onlyadds to theconstellation of lines, but somehow takes the place of the scene thatthe viewerwould normallyexpect to contemplate.It abstractsor, better still, usurps continuity, discursive dominance, rep- resentation.Telescoped writing replaces the pictorialand anecdotal spectacleof conventional art. The visuallyabsent scene is paraphrased bymeans of a singleword whose etymologysuggests separation. Threesmall redrectangular zones revealthe structuralpattern of theengraving consisting of dividing frames and windows,which, like HaroldLloyd's glasses, do not containor open ontoanything. The red zones suggestmagnified fingerprints of which one, markedwith a blackcross, points to thefutile identification of another absent event or person,another change of perspective,or still anothersignature. The fingerprints,perhaps bloodstained, can be linkedto a barelyrecog- nizableindex finger drawn in thesame red ink. The fingercould belong to theartist, the actor and/or a possiblecriminal who mayhave left the prints,one ofthem marked with a blackcross suggestive of murder, but nonethelessfar too ambiguousto providea meaningfulclue. It might indeedinduce the reader to pursueone redherring after another! Un- likethe red zones andlines, the unrelieved green areas provide no more /9.7

1. ValerioAdami, Crisis. RENEE RIESE HUBERT 247 and no less than a pleatedpaper surfacewhich neitherseduces nor repulsesthe viewer. A foldedpage is bothdouble and incomplete, for it also comprisesan absent,hidden part. Emotional reactions might de- terany scrutinizer less concernedwith meaning as suchthan intent on confrontingand perhapsobjectively defining what is there.Red ink, possibleblood stains, and the suggestion of a policerecord combine the signifyingprocess with the signifiedact, purportedly translated. The hand,so oftenpresent in Adami,compounds the energy of the actions ofwriting and drawing. Here, it situatesus at thecrossroads of identity and anonymity. In additionto theartist's signature and the title, the name of Harold Lloydappears in theengraving. Lloyd joins theranks of portraits good and bad-as Derridalabels them-of artistsand politicianswho have providedboth matterand titles forAdami's art. Crisis, forHarold Lloyd,is a suppressedor absent movie recallingthe star'sreduced mobilityand flexibilityfollowing an accidentthat damaged his right handin 1919. Analogiesrelating the fingerprints,the hands,and the doubleportrait of the star,present only in thefamiliar hat and glasses tantamountto his signature,produces a mise en abyme,a subversion ofreality culminating in thefacelessness of the actor whose eyes have beenobliterated. And these variegated signs, some ofwhich evoke the actor'sserious accident, irresistibly converge on writingand drawing. The date,1927, can be consideredcritical for the movie industry, for it markedthe end ofthe silentfilm. The 1980"livre de peintre"entitled Sang, a poemby Jacques Dupin lithographedby Adami in his inimitablescript, provides quite a differ- ent typeof collusion betweenalphabetical inscriptions and poetic words(Fig. 2). Harshnessand multiplefragmentation predominate in this ascetic and trituratedtext, close in many respectsto Adami's decapitatedimagery.6 Both the painter and thepoet seem to shyaway fromtransitions and digressions.Comparable again are the effectsof suffocation,lack of movement,lack of an engagingopening. Indeed, lack-the inevitabilityof doing without some vitalnecessity-rivals in importancethe idea ofblood, and forthat reason the title may well containa pun: "sang"and "sans." In mostof his longpoem Dupin also shareswith Adami a preoccupationwith anonymity, because speaker, figure,voice, and narratee tend to remainundefined and unnamed. The poet's struggleis markedby suffering,wounds, and of courseblood-

6. Dupin,Sang, lithographies originates d'Adami, (Paris: Maeght, 1980). / 8~'4{S^ j;U/S, i,,'4v

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2. Valerio Adami, page fromSang.

248 RENEE RIESE HUBERT 249 shed.Any contactis painful.Far from suggesting a warmerotic em- brace,the expression "faire corps avec" expressesa painfulcurtailing of distances.And conversely,blood also providesthe pulsationof life overcomingimmobility, inertia, and nothingness. This disturbingout- pouringfrom a facelessstruggle can havea salutaryand almost baptis- mal effectby providinga writingfluid for the poet and transforming theclotted earth into a palimpsest.The wound,the fundamental con- tact betweenthe poet and the world,is transmittedto the reader througha multiplicityof gestures, signs, and inscriptions.Instead of dwellingon his usual devices,Adami shows how carefullyhe has read Sang.In his characteristiccalligraphy he has lithographed,in mostly red lettering,the poetic text.He thus pointsout thatwriting is not merelyinstrumental, but generates the main thrust of the poem; for it makesvisible the poet's links to hiswounds which will not heal as long as he pursueshis quest,as longas writingfails to lead to self-definition, howeverlimited that may be. Adami's ,as I have argued, includewords penned in his undisguisedhandwriting, show a displace- mentof his signature,or givea name to a facelesspersona. By main- taininghis ownhandwriting in Sang,Adami only marginally appropri- ates the poem and thus stressescollaboration. As the metaphorof bloodendows the poem with both a corporaland a symbolicdimension the handwrittenletters in themselvesprovide far more than routine textuality:a livingbody. Adamihas forsaken,however, the regularity he usuallybestows on his linesand letters.Their unwanted irregularity suggests that several warringforces may be at play,impelling individual letters to move upwardor downward. It is also possiblethat these letters have a will of theirown, or thatthe surfaceof the paperhas the powerto displace them.We can assumein anycase thatthe regularity of a pageof poetry, printedor lithographed,has lost some,if not all, ofits relevance,and also that it is futileto applyconventional typographical standards. Indeed,the downwardswoop of some ofthe lettersnever comes to a haltin conformitywith prescribed patterns. These unpredictableand unexpectedleaps ofletters or extensionsof lines mayof course rever- beratepoetic pulsations, throbbing from a flowof blood, disturbed in, ordeviated from, its organic course in reactionto threatsand obstacles. All ofthis goes to showthat in spiteof the inexorable linearity of most ofhis paintings,Adami has leftsome roomfor organic movements. Movies,however, appear to be morein keepingwith his approachto artthan lie's inexorablepulsations. In "Les Reglesdu montage,"auto- 250 Yale FrenchStudies biography,esthetics, and culturalcritique crossfertilize each other.7 The titlereveals an inherentparadox, which is one of the rhetorical traitshe shareswith Derrida.In selectingthe acrobaticbut immo- bilizedHarold Lloyd for an essentiallystill engraving, Adami uses the cinema to play with the notion of immobilityversus motion. The montage,initially a cinematographictechnique made famous by Eisenstein,may in spiteof its codificationapply to Adami'swork. The title "Les Regles"seems to belie thefact that Adami always remains open to randomsolicitations as he works: "I have my rules about professionalismyet I onlyknow how to drawaccording to chance"(22). Beforeformulating this paradoxical credo, he hadrepeatedly alluded to conversationsand interviewswith Derrida.These and otherauto- biographicalnotations recount his progressin relatingtextually and graphicallyto Glas. Adami'sheterogenous text, moving from reduc- tivestylized telegraphic notations about everyday experiences to aph- orismsabout artisticcreation, accompanied by visual quotationsin the margins,simultaneously orders and disruptshis as well as our progression.These strategiesare not unlike those to which Derrida resortsin his own texts,although the various substrata are more con- sistentlyinterwoven and directedin the latter'swritings. Adamithe painter textualizes himself in "Les Reglesdu montage" by dintof multiplying quotations. He mentionsseveral of his works, both finishedand unfinished,arising from experience and critical thinkingas well as fromhistorical principles adhered to or decon- structed.He notonly expresses verbally the process that put his hands in motion,but also reproducesearlier drawings, photographs, and paintings(Fig. 3). The visual quotationsare morethan a stillreplica, more than memoriesmade present,for Adami developsthoughts whichencompass drawing and paintingtogether with the act ofwri- tingthe present text. He claimsthat each work of art offers all elements requiredfor interpretation and, like Derrida,that each workof art is open-ended.Adami states that wheneverhe finishesa painting,he ends with ellipses, thus equating graphicart with an incomplete sentence. The painterenumerates the multiple stimuli that activate a draw- ingor painting:miniexperiences, pulsational thrusts, aggressive inci- dents,personal memories, readings of words and images.We maynot knowwhen a workof art begins, and duringthe process of its produc-

7. "Les Reglesdu montage,"Derriere le Miroir,no. 220, Oct., 1976. En descendantdu taxi,A New York,le chauffeurse tournevers moi et s'Acrie:"eh. peintre!Ne te coupe pas l'oreille!" Le magistratest venu,il a saisi deux vieuxfusils et les photosde mes amis barbus. Entre Paris et Bruxellesnous parlionsdu Chili sur des banquettesrecouvertes d'azur./ Le vieuxretraite attendait la mot. assis dans le jardin.

19.12.75. Au magnetophoneje r66couteune conversationavec Carlos ~ Franquienregistree AArona en 1969; nous parlionsdes hotels, du themedes latrines,des massacresprives... C'6taientd'autres faXons de vivre,un autresysteme nerveux, / je ne sortaisqu'avec un appareilphoto... I Diner A la Coupole avec Arakawa,nous parlonsde Chirico. tX gg/Pourquoi je n'aimepas ses dernierstableaux ? A cause de la

-@ t - t cuisine.Ii n'6baucheque des thdoriestechniques et ses tableaux ne sechentpas. Je racontei'histoire du cuirasseamericain qui s'est volatilis6dans le portde Naples. Entierementdemonte et escamot&en une nuitpendant l'absence de 1Pdquipage.J'aimerais en tirerun film. Jetermine "Un matind'hiver". / Un systemede signes...

.20.12. .z F& En travaillantau "Recitsur Virginia Woolf', j'coute la seconde F3. tf -bande de la conversation avec Franqui ; contre la guerre au Vietnam, les manifestationsde Chicago, le massacre A Mexico, etc. 1 21.12. La lectureest le travaildu lecteur./ Un tableaudonne toutes informationssur lui-mrme.

3. Valeno Adami, page fromDerrire le miroir.

251 252 Yale FrenchStudies tionunaccountable surprises might emerge. Deviations and substitu- tionsfrequently recur. Since drawingfor him is essentiallyan activity in whichthe borderbetween the selfand the otheris repeatedlyin- fringed,it definitelyshows affinities with modern poetry. Indeed, Ad- ami advocatestransgressive techniques, practices, and conceptsbor- rowedfrom both art and literature. He explicitlyargues against generic separation,against standard clarifications. It is thereforehardly sur- prisingthat the word should reach into his paintingsand drawings. The "written"word not only replacesthe narrative,but encompassesit within,rather than outside, the frame. His signature,included within the frame,builds an indestructiblebridge between the wordand the image. Not only does he strivetoward, but he even pleads for,the integrationof literary discourse within his work:"I wouldlike to use in paintingthe termsprose and poetryand definemy workas prose painting"(8). Adami wishes to emulatethe prose poem, the kind of text thatdefies homogeneity, that unites contrastingelements, and that featuresverbal experimentation with space and time. He keys into narrativity,no longerdefinable as a storyarising from events, but as a profileunexpectedly traced in thepursuit of form. "To drawcolor" (8): thecolor does notenjoy the same autonomyas drawing."You use everythingin drawing:your own life,the life of others,last night'sfilms seen on television,reflections on water,para- dox,popular art, uncertainties, allusions, the nervous system, the left hand" (8). It would seem thatAdami refusesto reducedrawing to a meretechnique or evento a mediumin the visual arts.Although he regretsto a certainextent the order and rigorof the classical tradition, he acceptsthe necessityof its irretrievableloss in presenttimes. Just like writing,drawing encompasses personal and culturalstimuli, in- nerand outerimpulses, abstract and concretefigments, above all para- doxes and reversalswhich circumventrepetition. Adami presentsa textabout progressiveconceptualization, rather than a discussionof worksreproduced in thetext. In spiteof the bridges he buildshe never completelyobliterates the borders: "Drawing, imitation of the object. Writing,imitation of the spoken word" (23). He insistson theanalogy ofthe process, while arguing elsewhere that such imitation has littleto do withmirrors and mimesis. "Les Reglesdu montage"introduces undercut and subverted narra- tives.An orderlytime sequenceheads towardentanglement. Adami's telegraphicstyle, his drasticreductions, his repeateddispersions make us lose thethread of his thwartedattempts at affabulation.The painter RENEE RIESE HUBERT 253 who drawswith an eraser,who abolisheswords and lines,attracts our attentionto absenceand negation.As in Mallarme'spoetry, his nega- tionsare potently evocative. When a contemporarywriter such as Rene Char or a draftsmansuch as JosephSima deliberatelyrefrains from providinga full-fledgednarration, s/he oftenentices the readersto plugthe holes by enmeshingthe most suitablecorollaries and inter- texts.When Adami as visual artisttranslates the problematics of his productioninto verbal fragments, he simultaneouslytransposes into linearshapes the worksof the writerhe portrays,for instance Freud and Benjamin.But the essence of theirworks can hardlyaccede to representabilityin Adami's paintings. Freud is on his wayto Londonto die; Benjamincrosses still anotherfrontier only to commitsuicide. Adami'sreductive system of lines, his sectionalizations,which eclipse content,narative, and depth,entrap in, and reduce these thinkers' lifelongmeditations to a single,philosophically negligible, incident. They are on theirway and caughton the move, so to speak, at an insuperableremove from the ineffablegraphic pattern that might en- capsulatetheir writings-in both senses of the term. In Freud'sVoyage to ,illegible scribbles point perhaps to the writingprocess at some subconsciousstage. As a text,it providesan imaginarysemiotic or symbolicstage, before writing and drawinghad becomedifferenti- ated.Harold Lloyd, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, and manyother famouspeople remain absent. Their eyeless glasses point to a "dehu- manization,"as Derridacalls it in (par-dessusle marche).Portraiture and identitybecome paradoxical. Lines are addedand subtractedbut neverto be arrestedin accordancewith a conventionalmode. Adami strivestoward a commitment,an "artpoetique," a conceptualization constantlyweighted against, and at oddswith, gestural equivalents of themovement of the hand. By insistingon montagein his title,Adami not onlyreasserts his allegianceto film,but he situateshis textin relationto his own Pot- emkinand Crisis.A movieis motion,and Adamioften refers to voy- ages, even to the extentof entitlingthe exhibitdiscussed here "Le Voyagedu dessin," a show chronicledby Derrida. In manyof Adami's works,motion becomes at once a still,a simultaneity,and a sortof "happening,"thanks to thedevice of "folding"pages and subdividing sections."Montage" suggests not onlyfilm but "photomontage,"an assemblageof photographicfragments similar to the collage tech- niques thatcharacterize much of his graphicwork and playso promi- nenta partin Derrida'sGlas. A comparisonthat Adami makes between 254 Yale FrenchStudies his arton the one hand,the close-upand theunfocused on the other, mayhelp us definethe place ofthe irrationalwhile acountingfor the impossibilityof centralization and evenpointing to the (eniclosureof the "systems"he attemptsto define. Since thetitle "Les Reglesdu montage"is in theartist's handwrit- ing,it marksstill another collision or collusion of writing and drawing. Becauseit is somehowreminiscent of a crossed-outsignature, the still recognizablelettering multiplies paradoxes and analogies. While these incompletelycancelled signs tamperwith convention,the straight doubleline crossing them has theadvantage of translating writing into a musicalscore, thus into yet another language and another medium. It so happensthat the Frenchword "partition"and the Italian "par- titura"derive etymologically from a divisioninto parts,akin to the idea ofseparation inherent in "crisis."In anycase, bothdivisions and sounds,consistent with frames and soundtracksin movies,also playa significantrole in Derrida's "+R+." Adamientitles a sequenceof three drawings Etudes pour un dessin d'apres Glas. In the exhibit"Voyage du dessin,"they may not have beenassigned a prominentplace, for the show stressed the importance of drawingrather than of conceptsin Adami'swork. The drawings d'apresGlas highlightthe interaction between the philosopher and the artistby revealing the crucial importance of interpretation, ofreading andwriting for both creators (Figs. 4, 5).The same exhibitalso refersto "Elegyfor young lovers" by Auden,includes a drawingcalled Auto- biografiaas well as one entitledThe Portrait of Walter Benjamin" (Fig. 6). Autobiografiaresembles the drawingsd'apres Glas because ofthe use ofa dividedpage, the refusal of any kind of centralization or mar- ginalization,and the presenceof similarhandwriting. It has in com- mon with "Les Regles du montage"a rejectionof the kind of full- fledgednarrative which attemptsto givemeaning to assortedwords and dates by settingthem in arbitrarilycoherent sentences. While alludingto politicalviolence, it drawsparallels with The Portraitof Benjamin.Autobiografia portrays an unrecognizableself somehow relatedto the"Ich" thatDerrida will stressin " + R+. " Moreimportant still,Adami has designatedthis portrait by means of a purelyliterary term. The painterrefrains from giving his drawingsd'apres Glas a defini- tive status. He assertsthat the sequence is no more than a study: tentative,spontaneous, in keepingwith his theoriesin "Les Reglesdu montage," andDerrida's perspectives in Glas. Adamireplaces the dou- aft[tuA?

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6. ValerioAdami, Ritratto di WalterBenjamin RENEE RIESE HUBERT 257 ble columnedpage by a double-faceddrawing. By means of subdivi- sions, connections,and rupturesthe frontfunctions as a modified page, a translation,a transposition,a summaryof lengthytexts by Derrida,Hegel, and Genet thatinclude a multiplicityof quotations from,and referencesto, a wide varietyof texts.Adami emphasizes Derrida'sradical undercutting of writing conventions, his challenging ofthe single-minded page, and thenew kindof readable visibility that his experimenthas produced.Nor has thepainter in anyway disguised his handwritingor hidden his personalinvolvement. He suggestsboth verballyand graphicallythat in his readingof Glas, margins,ruptures, chiasmas,and frames,must upstage all otheraspects of the work. But this substitutionof graphicfor discursive means has not prevented himfrom distorting the frame or crossingout ofthe word "margins," alreadyexiled from the frame. Graphic if not verbal paradoxes are thus multiplied;enclosure and transgressionare made to challengeone anotherother while raising all alongthe conjoined problematics of the canvasand thepage. By such devices,the painter addresses the prob- lematicsof Glas, in whichtwo texts,separated but sharingthe same pageand deconstructingeach otherfrom within, induce the reader to search,even if in vain,for the main discursivethrust. Thus summa- rizedby Adami, Derrida's textualization appears to transgressmargins, personifywriting, treat texts as thoughthey were writers forced alter- nativelyto observeand lose sightof one another.By moving from text to graphicsand back again,the artisthas made drawingand writing interchangeable:"Mais les tableauxsont ecrits et ce(lui)qui (s)'ecritse voitregarde par le peintre"(173). [But the paintings are written and the one whowrites (or gets written) sees himself(or itself) looked at bythe painter.]It is Derrida's turn to decipherAdami who had already (mis)quotedand decryptedother texts by thephilosopher. Since Der- rida in "1+ R+" comments on the drawings,a mise en abyme becomes inevitable.The drawingon theback of the page provides a counterpart to thefront, insofar as it excludeswritten, curved, and roundedlines, showinginstead assembled ladders as well as geometrical,horizontal, and verticaldivisions moving reversibly in an upwardand downward direction.And it continuesto multiplyframes and windowswithout suggestingwhere any of them might lead. Firstpublished in Derrierele miroir,"+ R+" introducesAdami's drawingexhibit "Le Voyagedu dessin."The fulltitle as it appearsin theillustrated journal reads: Le Voyagedu dessin,accompagne par + R (par-dessusle march6).Derrida's text thus functionsas partof the show,metaphorically providing a musicalaccompaniment for the dis- 258 Yale French Studies placementof the drawings together with an ambiguousremark in (par- dessusle marche)on thecommercial underpinnings of all artexhibits and on the supplementalfunction of all criticalcommentary. The presencewithin the title of three-pronged allusiveness problematizes themargins supposedly separating art from commerce and discourse, whilegiving an ironictwist to the idea ofa musicalaccompaniment. The titlethus performs in the mannerof many of Derrida's texts. By repeatederasure, Derrida circumscribesthe fieldof esthetics,then transportsthe reader to political,historical, economic, and philosophi- cal situationsseen as indispensablesupplements in writtenworks. Adami'sdrawings are exposedin a doublesense ofthe word as visible languageand production. Such doublenessleads to increasedplurality and makes the presenceof a thirdpartner in the associationalmost indispensable:that of Walter Benjamin, who wrotea keyessay on the workof artin the age of mechanicalreproduction. In any case, Ben- jaminhas providedindispensable intertexts for "+R+," besidesfunc- tioningas a translatorin the multiplesense thatDerrida gives this word.It is ultimatelythrough Adami's Portrait of Benjamin that the meaningof drawingand writingcomes quite literallyto a head. Yet everythingremains of course open-ended. Reproduced with Derrida's text,Adami's drawing of Benjaminbecomes somehowverbalized. It shows in telescopedoutlines the man threatenedby militarypower crossinga borderand goinginto exile. But this drawingthat Derrida appropriatesinto his own problematicsalso reiterates"le Voyagedu dessin." Adami'sportrayals of writersand thinkersdwell on spatial transitions,political displacements, violence, and imminence of death. However,these allusions,these minimaloutlines, these ambiguities involvingabsence are not primarilythematic. Derrida's simul- taneouslydescriptive and theoretical appropriations accompany in ad- dition a verbalvoyage, generated by sounds,letters, syllables, and words.Derrida moves toward a languagewhere meaning is neverfixed, wheresemantics is to a largeextent subverted. Sounds and syllables travelautonomously or by means ofnewly discovered analogies. The spatialexpanse on theprinted page showsrecurring verbal reflections ofwritten clusters in a constantprocess of modification,whereas in the drawings,the black outlinesreduce almost to signlanguage the portraitof an author,compounding a biographicaland a textualevent. The inevitablelink betweenDerrida's writing a text,ultimately in- cludingLa Writeen peinture,and Adamiexposing his drawingspar- tiallybased on his readingof Glas and includingThe portraitof Ben- RENEE RIESE HUBERT 259 jamin,retranslated by Derrida,links authorships,identities, names, and signatures."One must be severalin orderto write"(152), states Derrida.The presenceof "da" in Derridaand Adami,of "mi' in Ben- jamin and Adami is stressedin Derrida'sefforts to supplantlogical categoriesand linearcausalities. These syllables,these fragmentary repetitionsserve to generateaffinities that can be extended,echoed, silenced,or amplifiedat will. "+ R+ " has no beginningand no end,since it neitherbegins with a capitalletter nor ends with a period(Fig. 7). In theoriginal edition there are no margins,so thatbeginning and end are deniedin the layoutof thepage. The generalsubversion of meaning in languagewould under- mine Cartesianstep-by-step reasoning, leading from one certaintyto the next. But the path towarddoubt or, betterstill, towardunde- cidability,that Derrida's readers may followif so inclined,does not revealthe need for a newsystem, for it is aptto turnback on itselfin an endlesspattern of reversibility:no beginning,no end. Writtenas if dictatedby stimuli,the text,printed with seeming homogeneity and unity,features multiple interruptions and gaps which do notrequire to be filledor evenovertaken. It formsa web withouttraceable patterns, so thatwhat might have appeared to be a loose endresurfaces at a later stageof the text.Inquiry into, or playwith, language can thuslead to partialcollusions followed by dispersions if not by disseminations. But it wouldbe wrongto claim that,for Derrida, in thebeginning was the word.Here as elsewhere,he entersby the activityof writing into an existingworld of pulsations, lines and anecdoteswhich will formnew associationsand groupings,unsuspected knots opening onto new en- meshments.The drawing,entitled "Ich" in "+ R+," combiningas it does theimage of a hookedfish with fragments of texts in Adami's and Derrida'shandwriting, provides a responseto the latter'stwo- columnedwriting in Glas which,again and again,subdivides into a manyzones page.8In Derrida'sresponse to Adami'sdouble-columned drawingwe aretreated not to, let us say,a confrontationbetween texts by Genet and Hegel, but an up-to-the-minutehandwritten exchange betweenDerrida and Adami. It would thus seem that (par-dessusle

8. "Amonga hundredor so otherdrawings, it is worthrecalling here two studies for a drawing'after Glas'. Theywere preparations for the two works which received their titles,ICH and CHI (CHIMERESfor the whole) from the following text. This textwas printedin 18 pointtype, without margin, border or passe-partoutof anykind. And is primarilyconcerned to explainthis fact." (Note fromthe translatorsof The Truthin Painting, 150). et si,le resonnementdans cette autre langue vous egarant encore, j'aimais les motspour trahir(pour traiter, triturer, trainer, tram er, traquer).

Par exemple,pour trahir Adami, etre traitre a son travail,je me laisseraisdonner uncadre.

L'exhiberai-jesans reste ? Commentevaluer l'economie des moyens, les contraintes d'une6cheance (tant de jours, mais c'est plus retors,je procede a partird'une accumulation difficilea mesurer), d'un format (tant de signes,mais je plieet multiplie les tropes,surd6- termineles codes,engrosse les langueset les marges,capitalise 'ellipse,jusqu'a un certain pointqui me regardemais que je voismal), et puis ce qu'ilsappellent les conditions-de-la- reproduction,le march6-de-la-peinture: mais aussi de la signature,de l'6critureet me'me, iciprise en compte,de la rature.

II dessinaita la gomme,le voiciqui rature.

Que fait-il,lui, du march6,des cadres et des marges? En parlerde toute 6vidence ne lui suffit pas. Ni l'enoncede theses & cesujet. Benjamin, ici portraiture,enjoint a L'auteurcomme producteur: qu'il ne se contentepas de prendre position,par des discours, au sujetde la soci6teet quejamais, ffit-ce de thesesou deproduits revolutionnaires,il n'approvisionne un appareilde productionsans transformer la structure mermde l'appareil,sans le tordre,le trahir,l'attirer hors de son element.Apres l'avoir pidge,l'ayant d'un mauvais coup pris au motou au mors. Ici meme,voyez, il a forceun cadre. I1 I'a misa nuet retoume, s'acharnant a disloquer les angles,fouillant les encoignures.A tergo,laissant croire qu'on pouvait toumer autour, faireun tour de propri6t,passer derriere la reproductionspeculaire. Maiso4 le dosfait face, le texteetait dejA: lettres initiales deja Acrites de ce que vous croyezAtre sa mainpar quelqu'un qui Acritici moi,disant (quoi? lisez, regardez) ici main- tenant,mais depuis toujours entrainees dans Glas par une incroyablescene de seduction entreRembrandt et Genet. Avec passage a l'acte,bien sfir, comme on entendla seduction dansla psychanalyse. Mettantle cadreen avant,le poussantsur la scene,maltraite, sous les projecteurs, il a barrAmarges, il a ecrit,doncraturA, ce qu'ilfaisait; il a dessine,trait pour trait, ce qu'il Acrivait,ce qu'il raturaitplut6t: ces Margesque je tenteraisen vainde me riapproprier comne unerente ou untitre. Pource doublegeste, et ce mobiled'une citation, deja, de la doublegravure (disque etdessin), Concerto per un quadro di Adami, il lui fallait deux fois deux mains. II comnose.il

7. JacquesDerrida, first page of " +R+ " fromDerriere le miroir,no. 214.

260 RENEE RIESE HUBERT 261 marche)was actuallygenerated by their double signature on thedraw- ing,which necessarily combines sectionalized writing and graphics, as well as bythe more complete image of the fish. "Ich" becomesimbri- catedor implicated in thenet in whichit was caught.Origin does not mattersince thematically,philosophically, and strategically,Derrida has reachedback to Glas and,further still, to Genet'sconcern about mortaltreason. The text becomes intricatelyinterwoven with the drawingwhose own ingredients have been borrowed from Glas, insofar as it has broughtto the surfacefrom the depth of the sea theshadows andilluminations of fragments capable of providing further progress in the"voyage du dessin"toward parts unknown. Derrida's words create a trajectoryabounding in surprisesand complicationsby alternatively focusingon a singledrawing or on a sequence.One can no moreisolate a drawingfrom the exhibition than Derrida's accompanying text from the show. The latter's networkof quotations is "schemed" and "caught," "in orderto takeit fromhim in turnand hold it at theend of myline" (157) in the same mannerthat "Freudet la scene de l'6cri- ture,"9 Concertoa quattromani, Marges de la philosophie,and Freud in viaggioverso Londra crossfertilize one another,not as framedsepa- rateworks, but as atoms of lifeor pulsatingmemories. There is no beginningor end,as thereis no originto Derrida'stext. And language withoutquotation is no longerpossible in "Les Reglesdu montage." Adamihad also mentionedthe impossibility of disregarding earlier art, ofstarting from scratch. In lookingat the spiraldouble page of the exercisebook which allowsthe notion of "Etude" to becomevisible while referring to both writingand drawing,Derrida suggests the almostlabyrinthian twists and turnsthat hold the authorstogether. By designatingAdami as author,Derrida obliterates by still anotherdevice the line thatsepa- ratesdrawing from writing. The philosophercomments on thedouble page whichhas been fracturedand dividedon the outerborder. The spirallink occupying a centralposition once againraises the question oforiginality and, of course, origin. Indeed, Derrida's signature on the drawingis notoriginal but reproduced. The readerthus faces the repro- ductionof a reproduction.This signaturebecomes almost as much Adami'sas Derrida's,since it belongsto the drawing.This constant shiftfrom one medium to anothergenerates a double languageby reciprocalappropriations of verbal and visual signs.The textsby Der-

9. Derrida, L'Ecriture et la difference,293-340. 262 Yale FrenchStudies ridaand Adamiare so heavilysectionalized in the drawingthat they cannotbe decipheredaccording to content.As a result,their narrative continuityor coherence is completelyundermined. These fragmented piecesof writing come very close to drawing.In Derrida'shandwritten passage,only a fewwords are highlighted: "Ma gorge,""coupe," "souf- fle." Nonetheless,they can providea minimalnarrative concerning the hookedfish outlined in the middleof the page. The words"a la fois" and "comme" corroboratethe validityof this analogywhich establishesthe relationsbetween the two handwrittentexts, reflects the two columnsof Glas, and shows the impossibilityof derivinga unidirectionalmeaning. Whereas Derrida's key words point to death and violence,relevant to the hangingfish, Adami's "tomber"and "noy'" pursue the allusions to death,programmed in the title,so centralto Glas. It would,however, be misleadingto considerthe out- linesof the fish as puredrawing or thetexts as purewriting, since the reader'seye moves down the page or even plunges until it drowns,thus repeatingin a sense the downwarddirection, the fall of Genet's pres- ence in Glas. The outlinesof the fish become loose, ultimatelyto be transformedinto a scribble.And eventhis apparent order is subverted bya horizontalfold. As in otherworks by Adami, the folded-over page provesto be double,since parts are necessarily hidden by folding. As a result,displacement, collusion, and duplicationare shiftedonto an- otherlevel. It is thereforehardly surprising that Adami has included Concertoa quattromani in his exhibition,and thatit is reproduced withDerrida's text (Fig. 8).1 This drawingreturns in multipleways to theproblematics of Glas. As the concertois playedby four hands, or two players,the drawingimplicitly represents the relationshipbe- tweenDerrida and Adami who worktogether without collaborating in a conventionalsense, who accompanyeach otherthrough counter- point.Adami provided not onlythe drawing but its mirrorimage, one moredouble, looking and beinglooked at, the selfand the other. If in Glas the readerhas to generatemeaningful relationships by movingfrom one textto another,or to a wordin theother text, or by readingbetween the two texts,in (par-dessusle marche)the reader moves,while oftenaddressing the same problematics,between draw- ingand writing,in thisinstance, much moreclosely interwoven. In- deed,the seeminglyarbitrary juxtaposition of texts in Glas no longer applieshere. Interpreters have mentionedthe patriarchaland matri- archalopposition between Hegel and Genet,but such considerations wouldhardly explain the pages of Derriere le miroir.Derrida points out 8. Valerio Adami, Concerto a quattro mani. 264 Yale FrenchStudies thatAdami's drawings, which do notrelate to specificsections in Glas, cannotbe treatedas illustrations.In (par-dessusle marche)they func- tionto a certainextent in themanner of documentation for a critical text.Derrida's refutation of the idea ofillustration seems crucial,all themore so because the drawingsfunction in his textas just another accompaniment.Moreover, these drawings, which do notprovide em- bellishmentsor interpretations ofthe text, cannot be andshould not be relatedto specificpassages. Actually, they provide new stimulations moreintense than other intertexts to whichcategory in manyrespects theybelong. They transfer the book's problematics;they accomplish what Derridaclaims to have done in (par-dessusle marche):"traiter, triturer,trainer, tramer, tracer, traquer," (171) [totreat, triturate, trail, in-trigue,trace, track] (151), a complexset of operationswhich con- densesand dispersesthe uniqueness of Glas. Derridafunctions as the painter'stranslator, a painter beset with multilingual associations to whichthe translator cannot remain faithful. In such "infidelity"lies a deepcomplicity between the painter and thephilosopher, a complicity thatmay also providea clue to Derrida'saffinities with Genet. As we have seen throughoutDerrida's text, the doubleplays a sig- nificantrole. He significantlytranslates "the double bind" as "la doublebande." To beginwith, the issue oftranslation refers to a double in language,to thesame as well as theother. Neither one is fixed,and Derridaconcentrates on languagein transitionrather than on dis- courseleading to solutions.As I have alreadysuggested, Concerto a quattromani revealsthe overlappinghands of absentplayers. The performinghands recurring in Adami'sart, just as thescene, the event, and thescenario, are partof Derrida's vocabulary. In his (par-dessusle marche),the gestures of writing emerge within the space of the margin- less text.Derrida accompanies Adami's drawingson theirtrip. His accompanimentis neithermuted nor subordinated,for all tracesre- quirethe same undividedattention on thepart of the reader.