The previously unpublished transcript of a lecture by Jacques Derrida around the figure of the blind and blindness in art.
A few months after the exhibition Memoirs of the blind which
was held at the Louvre museum in 1990-1991, and of which
Jacques Derrida was the curator, he participated to a symposium
on drawing as a guest of art teacher and artist François Martin.
On this occasion, Derrida was able not only to elaborate on how
the exhibition was set up and the exhibits selected, but also to
describe his relationship to art and the specific importance of
lines and drawings in his philosophical work.
The text of this conference, which had remained so far
unpublished, is now available, together with the live recording of
the lecture, making it possible to share the thrilling reminiscences
of the philosopher – a sort of memorial to Memoirs of the blind that will hopefully rekindle interest in the event.
“You must understand that someone who entertains the bizarre
conviction that they have never been able to draw in the most
elementary, the most basic sense of the word, someone who
feels that they would not even know how to look at a drawing,
see a drawing, let alone understand one – well, you can easily
imagine what it feels like when such a person is requested by the
Louvre museum to set up an exhibition of drawings (...).
I believe I've always been seriously inhibited about the
gesture which consists in drawing something and I must have
compensated for this inhibition about mute drawings by turning
instead to words, to speech, that is what stands for the picture,
surrounds it, or crowds it out.”
Jacques Derrida
Including a coupon allowing to download the audio recording of the conference.
