driftongue
Editors
Clelia Coussonnet
Clément Faydit
Alexandros Simopoulos
driftongue
Editors Clelia Coussonnet, Clément Faydit, Alexandros Simopoulos
The project driftongue derives from our experience participating to Hors Pistes designers’ research & production residency in Nuuk, Greenland, in collaboration with local craftsmen. The impetus behind it has been our fascination with the peculiarity of Greenlandic communication patterns relying on orality, gestures, performativity and transmission.
For Inuit, writing or drawing never was a necessity as organically stones, animals, natural elements and climate bore signs of language. The tension induced by the enduring Danish domination with no clear space for Greenlandic independence further triggered our interest. In our publication, we embrace the particular relation to reality/fiction that results, reflecting feelings of alienation, economy of words, visceral trust in nature, emptiness and silence.
The project driftongue derives from our experience participating to Hors Pistes designers’ research & production residency in Nuuk, Greenland, in collaboration with local craftsmen. The impetus behind it has been our fascination with the peculiarity of Greenlandic communication patterns relying on orality, gestures, performativity and transmission.
For Inuit, writing or drawing never was a necessity as organically stones, animals, natural elements and climate bore signs of language. The tension induced by the enduring Danish domination with no clear space for Greenlandic independence further triggered our interest. In our publication, we embrace the particular relation to reality/fiction that results, reflecting feelings of alienation, economy of words, visceral trust in nature, emptiness and silence.
‘Taava aana aamma tassa tugtupiteq
Stones, there are so many stones here.
Tugtupit, Calcedon, Juullip Ujaraa, Nuummite, Månesten, Rubinit.
She said she observes what they can tell and what they can become.’
‘Taava aana aamma tassa tugtupiteq
Stones, there are so many stones here.
Tugtupit, Calcedon, Juullip Ujaraa, Nuummite, Månesten, Rubinit.
She said she observes what they can tell and what they can become.’
Inspired by Cornelius Cardew’s The Tiger’s Mind and dramatis personæ at large, driftongue is thought of as a score or theatre stage where different voices navigate between their own space and a collective one. Multi-layered nonlinear editorial object rather than book, driftongue is a set mixing bound and unbound supports (cast list, booklet with inserts, folded poster, prints, postcards, sound files, video) printed on different types/sizes/shapes of paper. Spanning several media, the publication explores inhabitants’ ordinary stories, communication in transcultural collaborations and alterations induced to objects’ materiality through production processes. Intricate narratives stand along sketches and poetic prose, while readers can manipulate and activate some elements –making the experience unique. As a corollary, driftongue is conceived as a modular expandable object aiming to spread into space, particularly in exhibition and performance contexts.
Specific editorial choices (confrontation, displacement, addition and hierarchy of materials, ellipsis, play on hiding/revealing) reveal the junction between aesthetic practices, design, everyday life and political thinking.
Inspired by Cornelius Cardew’s The Tiger’s Mind and dramatis personæ at large, driftongue is thought of as a score or theatre stage where different voices navigate between their own space and a collective one. Multi-layered nonlinear editorial object rather than book, driftongue is a set mixing bound and unbound supports (cast list, booklet with inserts, folded poster, prints, postcards, sound files, video) printed on different types/sizes/shapes of paper. Spanning several media, the publication explores inhabitants’ ordinary stories, communication in transcultural collaborations and alterations induced to objects’ materiality through production processes. Intricate narratives stand along sketches and poetic prose, while readers can manipulate and activate some elements –making the experience unique. As a corollary, driftongue is conceived as a modular expandable object aiming to spread into space, particularly in exhibition and performance contexts.
Specific editorial choices (confrontation, displacement, addition and hierarchy of materials, ellipsis, play on hiding/revealing) reveal the junction between aesthetic practices, design, everyday life and political thinking.
Info
Design by Clément Faydit
October 2018, English
24 x 33 cm, editorial set consisting of 18 fragments, variable sizes, offset & riso printing, softcover with flaps
Limited edition – 300 copies
Info
Design by Clément Faydit
October 2018, English
24 x 33 cm, editorial set consisting of 18 fragments, variable sizes, offset & riso printing, softcover with flaps
Limited edition – 300 copies
Exhibitions
Hors Pistes – Encounters in Greenland, CID Grand-Hornu, Hornu, Belgium, 2019
Hors Pistes – Conversations between craftsmen and designers, mudac, Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2019
We are looking for more exhibition opportunities. If you’d like to get engaged, please contact us!
Exhibitions
Hors Pistes – Encounters in Greenland, CID Grand-Hornu, Hornu, Belgium, 2019
Hors Pistes – Conversations between craftsmen and designers, mudac, Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2019
We are looking for more exhibition opportunities. If you’d like to get engaged, please contact us!
‘It is a project in the making: a speculative editorial and readable object, spanning several media and prone to unfold into the space. Such improvised variations relate to the musicality and rhythm inherent to storytelling – in general, and to the Greenlandic language – in particular. Mirroring expression, driftongue is punctuated by repetition, fermata and intervals, figments, associative principles, authenticity and imprecision.’
— Quotes by Coussonnet, Faydit, Simopoulos, driftongue, 2018
‘It is a project in the making: a speculative editorial and readable object, spanning several media and prone to unfold into the space. Such improvised variations relate to the musicality and rhythm inherent to storytelling – in general, and to the Greenlandic language – in particular. Mirroring expression, driftongue is punctuated by repetition, fermata and intervals, figments, associative principles, authenticity and imprecision.’
— Quotes by Coussonnet, Faydit, Simopoulos, driftongue, 2018
