The starting point for DIALOGUE was an empty studio space, equipped with a metal shelf, a table and a chair. Three people took turns in working alone, one after the other, reacting to each other’s contributions. Instead of using spoken words we established a dialogue through materials and objects. By accumulating, modifying, adding, taking away, the situation kept changing and blurring the lines between individual intervention and common dynamics. DIALOGUE is a template for future conversations on different locations. ceci created a wooden sculpture which is a replica of the metal shelf from the studio. The sculpture will be the starting point for future dialogues at different locations.
The word dialogue has its etymological roots in the two Greek words: logos, meaning word and dia, meaning through. Our experiment in dialogue was inspired by the writings of the American scientist David Bohm.
“The dialogue, when one person says something, the other person does not in general respond with exactly the same meaning as that seen by the first person. Rather, the meanings are only similar and not identical. Thus, when the second person replies, the first person sees a difference between what he meant to say and what the other person understood. On considering this difference, he may then be able to see something new, which is relevant both, to his own views and to those of the other person. And so it can be back and forth, with the continual emergence of a new content that is common to both participants. Thus, in dialogue, each person does not attempt to make common certain ideas or items of information that are already known to him. Rather, it may be said that they are making something in common, i.e., creating something new together.”
(David Bohm, On Dialogue, 2004)
