Correspondances | Maartje Fliervoet

Correspondances departs from optic resemblances between a Palaeolithic ochre fragment excavated from Blombos Cave in South Africa (+/- 72.000 BC) and correction marks in the handwritten manuscript of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (1910). Beyond their visual similarities this novel, Rilke’s scratches in its manuscript and his letters to Franz Xaver Kappus evoke a reconsideration of the western reception of the ochre fragment and the use of language in archaeology in general. Correspondances consists of a frieze incorporating two letters, a publication and a series of silkscreened textiles.

The publication was designed by Our Polite Society and published by Good Neighbour Amsterdam, 2021