We use the cookies _ga, _gat, _gid to collect anonymous data about how you use this site. OK.
Comprendre quelque chose pleinement, c'est pouvoir n'en rien dire, 2010
Comprendre quelque chose pleinement, c'est pouvoir n'en rien dire (To Understand a Thing Fully Is To Be Able To Say Nothing About It)
was commissioned by Galerie IFF, Marseille France to mark the centenary of the birth in that city of typographer Roger Excoffon (1910 - 1983).
Excoffon was one of Marseille's most distinguished citizens, a typographer and graphic designer, creator of many classic typefaces including
Banco, Mistral, Antique Olive,
and
Choc,
as well as the livery for the national airline, Air France.
IFF commissioned seven artists and designers to create text posters which used or commented on Excoffon's work as a typographer: Åbäke, Fiona Banner, Laure Provoust, Liam Gillick, Ryan Gander, Stephane Le Mercier and Martin Firrell.
To Understand A Thing Fully Is To Be Able to Say Nothing About It
reflects on the nature of understanding and knowledge - what happens when understanding exceeds the expressive capabilities of language? Is the only reasonable response to complete understanding, silence?
The text of this artwork first appeared in a manifesto
Lucid Between Bouts of Sanity
published by the artist in English, French and Russian in 1996 for the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Literaturnoye Kafe, St Petersburg Russia
(1996.1).
To Understand a Thing Fully
is typeset in Excoffon’s
Antique Olive
with letterspacing specifed by the artist to render the text field visually dense. White type appears on a uniform black field in landscape format rather than the portrait format more usually associated with the fly-poster. In this orientation, the work has the effect of visually ‘silencing’ anything it is fly-posted over so reinforcing graphically the meaning of the artwork’s text.
This work supercedes an earlier prototype,
The Heroic Vastness of this City,
2010, abandoned by the artist.
