UN SIGNIFICADO NO SOLO DEPENDE DE UN SIGNIFICANTE,SINO DE LA COMBINACIÓN Y RELACIÓN ENTRE ELLOS. ACTIVE POETRY (EWA PARTUM) ANTS (BENJAMIN PATTERSON). ACTIVE POETRY (EWA PARTUM) THE POETIC WORK OF EWA PARTUM CONSISTED IN SCATTERING SINGLE ALPHABET LETTERS INTO A NON-ARTISTIC SPACE: BE IT THE OPEN AIR, SEA, OR AN UNDERPASS. THIS GESTURE LED TO THE DECONSTRUCTION OF A LANGUAGE WHEREUPON GRAMMATICAL, SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURES WERE USED TO DETERMINE CERTAIN PATTERNS OF AN ARTISTIC STATEMENT. HER POEMS WERE SHAPED BY COINCIDENCE, WHICH MADE THEIR LANGUAGE MORE OPEN AND PROCESS-ORIENTATED. THE CONFRONTATION WITH THE ELEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH FEMININITY (WATER, WIND) MADE IT POSSIBLE TO FACE THE PATRIARCHAL PATTERNS ROOTED IN THE LANGUAGE. A PARTIR DE 1970, EWA PARTUM ESCRIBIÓ MÚLTIPLES VERSIONES DE LOS LLAMADOS POEMS BY EWA (POEMAS DE EWA), CAMBIANDO DE ESTILO Y CONTENIDO A TRAVÉS DE LOS AÑOS. ALGUNOS EJEMPLOS DE SU TRADUCCIÓN CINEMATOGRÁFICA SE ENCUENTRAN EN LOS FILMS BY EWA (PELÍCULAS DE EWA) RECOGIDOS EN ESTA PELÍCULA. FRENTE AL ARTE CONCEPTUAL CENTRADO EN EL LENGUAJE Y SU REFERENTE JOSEPH KOSUTH, EWA PARTUM NO RELACIONA LA PALABRA CON LA IMAGEN A LA QUE REPRESENTA, SINO QUE PRETENDE MOSTRAR LA MATERIALIDAD DEL LENGUAJE Y LAS RESTRICCIONES QUE LA GRAMÁTICA Y LA SINTAXIS IMPONEN EN LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE SIGNIFICADOS. EL REFLEJO DE ESTE DISCURSO SE APRECIA EN LAS CINCO ACCIONES AQUÍ DOCUMENTADAS. LA ARTISTA ESPARCE ENORMES LETRAS BLANCAS POR DIFERENTES PAISAJES; EL MOVIMIENTO ALEATORIO DE LAS LETRAS EN EL ESPACIO DOTA DE TEMPORALIDAD AL PROCESO Y SE ACERCA A LOS DISCURSOS POSESTRUCTURALISTAS SOBRE EL LENGUAJE. SEGÚN ESTOS, UN SIGNIFICADO NO SOLO DEPENDE DE UN SIGNIFICANTE –UNA LETRA O UNA IMAGEN– SINO DE LA COMBINACIÓN Y RELACIÓN ENTRE UNA MULTIPLICIDAD DE ELLOS. LAS LETRAS DE CARTÓN BLANCO QUE LE SIRVEN A ESTOS PROPÓSITOS SON LAS PROPIAS DE LOS ESLÓGANES DE LA PROPAGANDA SOCIALISTA. TRAS LA CAÍDA DEL RÉGIMEN SOCIALISTA EN POLONIA, ESTOS DESAPARECIERON DE LAS CALLES Y DEL MERCADO, DE MODO QUE EN LA ACTUALIDAD APORTAN UN NIVEL MÁS DE LECTURA A ESTA PELÍCULA. PARTUM ENGAGES IN LINGUISTIC AND PERFORMATIVE PLAY IN AN ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTIC LANGUAGE. THIS SEARCH FOR A “NEW LANGUAGE” IS ROOTED IN HER BELIEF THAT PAINTING HAS EXHAUSTED ITS POTENTIAL TO GENERATE NEW OR TRANSFORMATIVE IDEAS. [1] PARTUM’S WORK ALSO IS MOTIVATED BY TOUCHING ON ISSUES SUCH AS THE NOTION OF PUBLIC SPACE, THE SITUATION OF WOMEN, FEMALE SUBJECTIVITY AND THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF THE 1980S. EWA PARTUM PRACTICES ART IN THE FORM OF DOCUMENTED ACTIONS, EPHEMERAL AND LINGUISTIC INTERVENTIONS AND WORKS ON AND WITH PAPER.  HER PRACTICE DEVELOPED IN A DIALOGUE WITH THE POLISH CONSTRUCTIVIST TRADITION OF ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE VISUAL ARTS AND POETRY. IN THE MID 1960’S, EWA PARTUM BROUGHT THE DISCOURSE ON EXPERIMENTAL POETRY INTO THE FIELD OF VISUAL ARTS, MOVING BEYOND PURE DECONSTRUCTIVE GESTURES WHICH HAD LOST THEIR RADICAL POTENTIAL. THE ARTIST DID NOT, HOWEVER, SIMPLY CONSIDER A PAGE OF PAPER AND A GALLERY’S SPACE AS COMPLEMENTARY MEDIUMS OF ART PRESENTATION, BUT RATHER SHE WAS INTERESTED IN JUXTAPOSING BOTH CONVENTIONAL STANDARDS – LINGUISTIC AND VISUAL – OF “INTELLECTUAL NOTATION”. AT THE SAME TIME HER WORKS THAT PROBLEMATIZED THE POSITION OF THE SPEAKING SUBJECT OVERCAME THE CONSTRAINTS AND REVEALED PARADOXES OF THE LOCAL CONCEPTUAL DISCOURSE, BECOMING A CRITICAL RESPONSE TO THE CONCEPTUAL NON-IDENTITY. ON THIS OCCASION PARTUM WORKED WITH KAFKA’S EPISTOLARY TEXT “LETTERS TO MILENA” DEVOTED TO THE TRANSLATOR OF KAFKA’S WORKS, MILENA JESENSKA. PARTUM TOO TRANSLATED KAFKA’S LOVE LETTER BUT BEYOND THE LANGUAGE, DE-STABILIZING IT AS TEXT AND REARTICULATING IT IN FORM OF AN OBJECT, CREATING A SPATIAL PALIMPSEST, THAT ENCOMPASSES AND RE-PERFORMS A LETTER TO MILENA. PARTUM SUBVERTED THE MACHINE OF POLITICAL INDOCTRINATION AND ITS “READY-TO-USE” DISCOURSE, BUT ALSO CHALLENGED THE DETERMINISM OF A LANGUAGE IMMOBILIZED BY THE RULES OF GRAMMAR, SYNTAX, AND SPELLING… BY SCATTERING THESE WHITE LETTERS FIRST AROUND THE CITY, THEN IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, SHE OPTED FOR A CONTINUOUS REDISTRIBUTION OF MEANING. PASSERS’-BY FOOTSTEPS, ROLLING WAVES, OR THE WIND WOULD CARRY ON THE DISPERSAL. IN 1971, THE ARTIST TOOK PASSAGES FROM GOETHE, PROUST, JOYCE, AND KAFKA, AND MIXED UP THE ORDER OF TYPOGRAPHIC CHARACTERS (AN EXCERPT FROM FAUST BY GOETHE, AN EXCERPT FROM A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU BY PROUST, ETC.). THIS DISLOCATION RESEMBLES DADAIST PRACTICES, SUCH AS RANDOMLY DRAWING WORDS CUT OUT FROM A NEWSPAPER, AS DESCRIBED BY TRISTAN TZARA. HOWEVER, PARTUM DOESN’T USE CHANCE AS THE ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE SINCE THE LETTERS NEVER PRODUCE ANY STABLE COMPOSITION. THE SCATTERING OF ACTIVE POETRY, REALIZED BETWEEN 1971 AND 1973, GENERATED A WIND-BLOWN FLUX OF LETTERS, FATED TO LOSE UNITY AND MEANING. LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY, THE ARTIST ACCOMPLISHED THE DISSEMINATION OF LOGOCENTRISM AND ITS HIERARCHIES, FOR THE SAKE OF THE INCOMMUNICABLE AND THE IMAGINATION. HTTPS://ARTMUSEUM.PL/EN/FILMOTEKA/PRACA/PARTUM-EWA-ACTIVE-POETRY-POEM-BY-EWA BENJAMIN PATTERSON HE WAS CLASSICALLY TRAINED ON THE DOUBLE-BASS, ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT AMERICA WAS NOT READY TO HIRE BLACK SYMPHONY MUSICIANS. SO HE FOUND ANOTHER WAY TO LEAVE HIS MARK. ACCORDING TO THE COMPOSER, SOMETIME JAZZ TROMBONIST AND COLUMBIA PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN MUSIC GEORGE LEWIS, “BEN’S WORK WAS LACONIC, WHIMSICAL, CONVIVIAL AND PROBING BY TURNS.” IN AN EMAIL EXCHANGE, LEWIS SAYS THAT PATTERSON “CROSSED BOUNDARIES BETWEEN VISUAL ART, MUSIC, AND PERFORMANCE WITH ALACRITY” PATTERSON’S OPENNESS TO INDETERMINACY AND HIS WELCOMING OF AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION FIT NEATLY WITHIN THE PARAMETERS OF FLUXUS’S CHARM, WHICH WAS TYPICALLY DRIVEN BY CHANCE AND EPHEMERALITY. THE GESTATION OF HIS 1960S PIECE ANTS GIVES A SENSE OF THE ARTIST’S PLAYFULNESS AND HIS DELIBERATE METHOD. IT STARTED AS A VISUAL IDEA: PATTERSON BEGAN COMPOSING ANTS BY HOLDING ITS TITULAR SPECIMENS IN RESERVE, THEN ALLOWING THEM TO ESCAPE ACROSS A PIECE OF WHITE PAPER. AFTER PHOTOGRAPHING THIS EXODUS FROM HIS CUSTODY, PATTERSON OBSERVED THE ANTS’ POSITIONS ON THE RESULTING PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSCRIBED THESE POSITIONS AS NOTES ON MUSICAL STAFFS. (YOU CAN FIND REPRODUCTIONS OF EACH STAGE IN THIS INVALUABLE EXHIBITION BOOK AND CD PACKAGE.) HTTPS://OPEN.SPOTIFY.COM/TRACK/0TZMBPTLWIBUXQZJOL9LXX?SI=733C8B05FA274D04