Pierre Weiss ‘the piss or the trail of the lemur’ Photographs by Marina Faust. Pages: 20, 23 and 25
In October 2011, I was asked to meet with a group of teenagers in Clichy-sous-Bois. Their teacher in French literature had invited me - they were studying one of my novels. To go to this neighbourhood, a Northern suburb of Paris, isn’t very pleasant. Although not too far from the city, it takes quite some time and energy to get there. The entire district is a neglected enclave. Victor Hugo made this place famous, sadly enough, since ‘Les Misérables’ is set mostly there, a place which back then wasn’t called ‘93’ yet, 93 being the number of the French department it is located in. It’s a territory of poverty and violence. But there is also a kind of beauty to it...
a former meat factory, and barely covered the walls. He had spent several weeks in the empty space. And then he put up a number of transparent boards on which he drew lines. Those lines were surrounded by existing lines. Underneath, in the transparency, appeared a yellowish trace, lending the piece its title: ‘the piss or the trail of the lemur’. The enigmatic presence of an invisible animal has an obvious link to language. This work of Pierre Weiss reflects the essence of language. The duty of language is to represent what isn’t really there. What struck me most was Pierre Weiss’ ability to create a hidden presence by using transparency. And that is exactly what language is: transAround the same time that I was invited to do parency and darkness. my workshop in the ‘93’, I heard that the artist Pierre Weiss had a show in the same district. His Gaëlle Obiégly. work has always had a strong link to the threat of violence. He has expressed this obsession in films, paintings, sculptures as well as in his writings. So I was curious to see how he would deal with his ideas in situ. He didn’t fill the space, TH + 20