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Re: Nothing




We start, then, with nothing, pure zero. But this is not the nothing of negation. For not means other than, and other is merely a synonym of the ordinal numeral second. As such it implies a first; while the present pure zero is prior to every first. The nothing of negation is the nothing of death, which comes second to, or after, everything. But this pure zero is the nothing of not having been born. There is no individual thing, no compulsion, outward nor inward, no law. It is the germinal nothing, in which the whole universe is involved or foreshadowed. As such, it is absolutely undefined and unlimited possibility -- boundless possibility. There is no compulsion and no law. It is boundless freedom.

Charles S. Peirce: "Logic of Events" (1898)

The pathos  of Idealistic Symbolism is illusionism. The phenomenal is all the illusion of Maya; beneath the veil of the shrouded Isis, perhaps, there is not even a statue but only emptiness, le Grand Néant of the French Decadents. [...] Idealistic Symbolism speaks to modernity, which is glad to listen to it; for modernity is concerned with two things only: materialistic sociology and nihilistic psychology.

Viacheslav Ivanov: Two Elements in Contemporary Symbolism (1912).
English Translation by Robert Bird in: Selected Essays. Ed. Michael Wachtel.
                        Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2001, pp. 13-35 [p. 28].


I tried to explain [...] that for me the only perfect moments in my life were when I had been so absorbed in the object - nature or music - that all self-consciousness was abolished. The 'I' had ceased to be.
Wittgenstein: "And so you think of death as the gateway to a permanent state of mind such as that."
Drury: "Yes, that is how I think of a future life."

Discussion (1936) reported by M. O'C. Drury: "Conversations with Wittgenstein."
In: Rush Rees (ed.): Recollections of Wittgenstein. Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 97-171 [p. 132].


L'un de mes enfants m'ayant demandé jadis, à l'age de trois ou quatre ans, "à quoi servaient" les tableaux pendus aux murs d'un salon, me répondit, après explication: "mais alors, les tableaux, ce n'est rien !"

A. Michotte: La perception de la causalité. Louvain, 1954.


"... Entre le peintre et la toile s'est faufilé l'espace du néant, dont la saisie est constitutive de l'angoisse. Pourquoi un geste plutôt que l'immobilité, pourquoi un tâche de couleur ici plutôt que rien?"

Michel Conil Lacoste: Tinguely. L'Énergétique de l'Insolence. Vol. I, p. 13. Paris: Éditions de la Différence, 1989.


"Ik heb 't idee van niks altijd al 'n idee van niks gevonden."

Wim T. Schippers: Het Laatste Nippertje. (Unpublished theatre play.
Première: October 6, 2010; Municipal Theatre, Haarlem.)




BULLETIN FROM NOTHING. Nos. 1-2. San Francisco, 1965. Contributions by Claude Pelieu, Mary Beach, Jeff Nuttall, Artaud, Roxie Powell, Ed Sanders, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William S. Burroughs, Bob Kaufman, etc.; collages by Norman Ogue Mustill, Pellieu, Chano Pozo.

revue INTEGRATION. Revue pour la nouvelle conception de l'art et de la culture. Revue voor de nieuwe konseptie in kunst en kultuur. Review for a new conception in culture and art. Nos. 1-13/14. Arnhem, Eschenau, 1965-1972. Published by Herman de Vries, in collaboration with W. Ganzevoort, H. Goepfert, M. Goeritz, N. Vigo, D. Sauerbier, P.K. Iden and Chr. Megert. Includes artwork and/or texts by Aubertin, Fontana, Mathias Goeritz, Megert, Chopin, Dieter Rot, de Vries, Friedmann, Paul de Vree, Ligeti, Houedard, Nusberg, Deman, Vieira, Ad Reinhardt, Collectiv Dwizjenie.

Piero Manzoni: "Free Dimension." Azimuth, 1960.

Piero Manzoni. Paintings, reliefs & objects. Exhibition Catalogue, Tate Gallery, London, 1974.

JOHANNES MEINHARDT: "Painting as Empty Space. Allan McCollum's Subversion of the Last Painting." AURA. Wiener Secession. Vienna, Austria; 1994.

REVUE NUL = 0. Tijdschrift voor de nieuwe konseptie in de beeldende kunst / revue pour la nouvelle conception artistique / zeitschrift für die neue künstlerische konzeption. Nos. 1-4. Arnhem, Nul-Verlag, nov. 1961-1964. First issue edited by Armando, Henk Peeters and Herman de Vries; later issues edited by Herman de Vries. With texts by B. Aubertin, Sascha Sosnovsky, H. Mack, G. Uecker, Henk Peeters, Sleutelaar, De Vries, Werner Ruhnau, Matthias Goeritz, Dietrich Sauerbier, Jef Verheyen, Y. Kusama, Gerd Winkler. Art-work by Hans Bischoffshausen, Antonio Calderara, Wolfgang Schmidt, Herman de Vries.

Albert Ribas: Biografia del vacuo.

Albert Ribas: The Void and Emptiness Site.

Tommaso Trini: "Interview with Lucio Fontana, July 19, 1968." Studio International, 1972.

Heinz Mack & Otto Piene: ZERO. Düsseldorf, 1962. Contributions by Arman, Bury, Fontana, Y. Klein, Mack, Manzoni, Peeters, Piene, Rot, Schoonhoven, Soto, Spoerri, Tinguely, Uecker, a.o.