“Simone Weil-Map” (2020)

During the 10 weeks of  ‘Covid19 Lock-down’ I undertook in my apartment in Paris the realization of the “Simone Weil-Map”. I thought that these weeks enclosed at home could be a fruitful moment for me to concentrate on and get involved in Simone Weil’s work. In mapping out instantaneously what I learned, I believe I can reinforce the experience of reading, and point out the connections I make in a thinker’s work. In reading, in cutting, in taping and in gluing I can be in direct contact with the thinking and ideas of Simone Weil. To make a Map is a form for immediate fixing what I learned, a form to point out which terms are important to me, and a form to make links – because it’s all about making links. These many links between Notions and Definitions show the dynamic, the radical, and singular movements of Simone Weil’s philosophy. I love her craziness, her absoluteness, her extremism, her anorexia because she tried – in a touching way – to separate the body from the spirit in her work and her life. Simone Weil was a Thinker, a Worker, a Soldier, she was truthful to art and did not betray art. I structured the “Simone Weil-Map” following 6 ‘Definitions’, 2 ‘Corner Stones’ and 26 ‘Active Notions’. The 6 ‘Definitions’ are: WOMAN, WORKER, WARRIOR, THINKER, HEALER, WITNESS; the 2 ‘Corner Stones’ are: SINGULARITY, RADICALITY; and the 26 ‘Active Notions’ are: MOVEMENT, OPPRESSION, THE VOID, JOY, ROOTS, EXTREMISM, ATTENTION, TRUTH, ETERNITY, LOVE, MYSTERY, THE WORLD, RIGOR, TIME, RELIGION, CHRIST, GOD, SOUL, DEATH, PURITY, ART, WORK, GRAVITY, GRACE, ANOREXIA, POLITICS.

T. H. March/April 2020

Thomas Hirschhorn, «Simone Weil-Map», 2020

Studio view, 250 x 450 cm

Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York

Photo : Marc Domage