New edition of an artist's book first published in 2009, gathering essays,
short stories and images (leporello ). The publication reflects the artist's long-term critical
interrogations on archives,
historiography and institutions.
Kaleidoscopic Eye departs from an argument between André Breton
and Roger Caillois. The confrontation arose from their discovery of
Mexican jumping beans—beans that make sudden movements and leap into the
air. Caillois conjectured that larva or some other animal was making the
beans move. Breton rejected his theory, accusing Caillois of being a
closed-minded positivist who negated the marvellous and the poetic in his
attempt to find a rational explanation. For Breton, absolute or objective
chance blurred the borders of rationality, proffering a chaotic and
stimulating universe: convulsive beauty. Caillois wrote a letter ending
the relationship with Breton, declaring his attempt to reconcile research
with beauty. Caillois sought to examine chance, chaos, and the
irrational with the goal of finding a pattern similar to the
structure of coral. This structure should combine, in one system,
everything that had until then been systematically excluded—a structure
capable of taking into consideration all the possible forms of reality. Kaleidoscopic Eye was first published as part of the exhibition
“Kaleidoscopic Eye”, in 2009 at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, now republished
in its second edition.
Published following the eponymous exhibition at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, from February 14 to April 12, 2009.
Born 1975 in Mexico City, Mariana Castillo Deball lives and works in Berlin and Amsterdam.
