In deze eerste serie van drie afleveringen zijn Arefeh Riahi, Maartje Fliervoet en Martín La Roche Contreras uitgenodigd om een zijde voor hun rekening te nemen. Ze zijn sinds de Appel in Lely huist geregelde bezoekers en gedegen onderzoekers in het archief. In 2017, tijdens een samenwerking met Martín La Roche Contreras en Maartje Fliervoet (Manifold Books) is – wegens tijdgebrek van de archivaris – de term Remote Archivist ontstaan. Twee jaar later tijdens het archiefproject van Arefeh Riahi “Un/folding Interventions” hebben de drie makers elkaar ontmoet en vormden “To See the Inability to See”. Samen gingen ze als vanzelfsprekend dieper het archief van de Appel in, verbonden in hun voorliefde voor papieren zaken – vooral voor de “aliens”, de stukken die nergens inpassen. Hun eigen collecties, herinneringen, kennisdossiers en de minutieuze determinatie van de trouvailles mondde uit in Outdated Compass. Hier wordt de richting een bewegwijzering om niet-archiveerbare en niet-categoriseerbare kennis te laten resoneren in het nu, maar net te laat en uit de maat!

Op de andere kant:

Willem de Rooij, Bouquet IX (2012)
geïnterpreteerd door Gerda's Bloemen en Planten op 18 juni 2020
Day for Night, 23 juni–3 juli, 2020

In deze tweede aflevering van de eerste serie van drie afleveringen vervolgt “To See the Inability to See” het verhaal Outdated Compass. Het stuurt de Remote Archivist in alle richtingen, behalve het noorden, en het zilvervisje doet zijn intrede in het archief.

Op de andere kant:

Jürgen Klauke, Brief aan Wies Smals uit folder Jürgen Klauke/Ulay “Keine Möglichkeit 2 Platzwunden” 1975

“To See the Inability to See” heeft in deze driedelige serie op verhalen gejaagd, verwijzingen in bewaring genomen en een reeks gebeurtenissen samenhangend gemaakt. In deze laatste aflevering worden de vertellingen weer vrijgelaten in het archief. De archivaris heeft een nieuw instrument; een werkend kompas met een geheel rode naald.

Op de andere kant:

Iman Issa, Tree? (for de Appel), 2021
Vooruitkijkend en archiverend naar de tentoonstelling met/door Iman Issa die vorig jaar werd uitgesteld en vanaf 2022 opnieuw gepland zal worden als de Appel een nieuw huis heeft gevonden

Katibeh, "The Epigraph" by Mehdi Akhavān-Sāles

Lies the rock there over, as though a mountain it was
And over here we sit, a tired throng
Woman and man and young and old
All to each other bound, yet from the leg
And with
chain
If the heart towards a desire led you
You were able to crawl towards it, but only far as it was permitted
Far as the chain went
We didn't know
Was it a voice in the dream of our tenor and tedium
Or was it a calling from somewhere, where? Never did we ask
Thus it said
lies a rock there over, and a sage from the precursors age
a secret written on't, each person an arch each person a pair
several times thus it said
the voice, and then as a wave running away from itself it went out in silence
and nothing did we say
and for a while nothing did we say
also thereafter `twas only in our gaze if sometimes
a group doubtful and in question stood
and the rest
was flood and fatigue and oblivion
and silence even in our gaze
and the rock lay there over
the night that from the moonlight damnation poured
our feet were swollen and itched
one of us whose chain was a bit heavier than ours, cursed his ear
and whimpered: one must go
and we wearily said
curse our ear and our eye also:
one must go
and we went and crawling we went to there where the rock were there
one of us of lighter chain, up went, then sang
my secret shall be known by none other
than the one who turns me around from this side to another
and with a pleasure did we repeat this dusty secret like a prayer in whispers
and the night was a lavishing river of moonlight full
Halla, one... two... three... another par
Halla, one... two... three... another par
sweating, lamentation, malediction, sometimes did we cry
Halla, one... two... three... excessive were such burdens
how overbearing it was yet how overwhelmingly sweet was victory
and we with a more familiar pleasure
droopy and delighted
saturated with vehemence and verve
one of us of lighter chain
hailed our help and up went
the concealed line he cleansed of mud and dirt and to himself did read
and we impatient
with his tongue he wet his lip and so did we
and he stayed silent
he looked at us and stayed silent
again did he sang, and silent did he stand, as if his tongue went dead
his gaze was stolen by an unknown far away
sing! still silent was he
sing to us! him looking at us silently
awhile went by
while his chain made noises
down he came, we caught him as if he was falling
we sat him down
he cursed our hand and his hand
?what did you read, huh
swallowing his slobber, slowly said he
it read
the same
my secret shall be known by none other
than the one who turns me around from this side to another
down we sat
and to the moonlight and light night we gazed
and the night was a languishing river

translated by Edward Amirahmadian

disclaimer:
All attempts at locating the translator have been made, but did not yield a contact. Any connections are much appreciated.

To See the Inability To See
The Remote* Archivist References Series 01

The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction – Ursula K. Le Guin
That Seeing and Looking at Oneself, or the Elephant in the Seminar – Fernand Deligny
Stigmata — Hélène Cixous
The Khan Facebook project: Four Rooms – Conversations with Elisabeth A. Povinelli, Shahram Khosravi hosted by Dani Blanga Gubbay
Precarious Lives: Waiting and Hope in Iran – Shahram Khosravi
Fluiten in het donker – Letter by the members of the Curatorial Programme 2011 to the visitors of the exhibition — de Appel - Amsterdam
The Parasite – Michel Serres
Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine: A book on reading, writing, memory and forgetting in a library of living books — Edited by: Mette Edvardsen, Kristien Van den Brande, Victoria Pérez Royo, Runa Borch Skolseg
Jacques Derrida — Nicholas Royle
What is the contemporary? — Giorgio Agamben
The Museum as a Cradle of Revolution — Boris Groys
De Appel – Marga van Mechelen
Un año — Juan Emar
The Passion According to G.H. – Clarice Lispector
Symbiotic Earth: How Lynn Margulis Rocked the Boat and Started a Scientific Revolution, a film by John Feldman – 2018
Katibeh — Mehdi Akhavan Sales
Martín La Roche Contreras - 12. Extinguish (from the Quickcrossword Ch’aekkôri), 2016, 1 of a series of 24 letterpress posters

Deze eerste serie wordt gemaakt in samenwerking met Manifold Books, Amsterdam, met dank aan het AFK.

Kunstenaars: “To See the Inability to See” Arefeh Riahi, Maartje Fliervoet and Martín La Roche Contreras
Kunstenaars: Willem de Rooij (Nummer 1), Jurgen Klauke (Nummer 2), Iman Issa (Nummer 3)
Archivaris: Nell Donkers
Ontwerp: Bardhi Haliti
Uitgever: Stichting de Appel
​Druk: Raddraaier SSP