[EN]

The joint sounds out the space, its depth and its boundaries, overcoming and dissolving it. The joint cuts apart and dismembers, then joins and recombines. Whether intentionally or simply because of its inherent tolerance, the joint allows the elements to stretch apart, impedes the formation of stress cracks, and provides a visual tension on the surface: a line. The joint prevents the shock of individual parts banging into one another, and is thus shocking — indeed, repellent. After all, the joint collects dirt and debris. The joint orders the system. But every organization also determines its own negation. For it is at the point of intersection, at the edges, at the junction, that the limit case arises with its disorder and dirt.

Hygiene attempts to convert the world (including the person) into dirt. It attempts to thrust dirt into the border zone, and then as quickly as possible to resist the invasion and to liberate the grey area. For clean is beautiful and good. Clean is bright, honest and dear. Clean is here. Dirty is ugly and it's elsewhere. Dirty is — how to put it? — somehow dubious, not quite right, intermediate. At least you can say that clean is... but dirty is unmistakably. It's clean as long as it stays inside. Once it gets out, it's dirty.

Images: Claude Barrault