the right to do nothing

Last month I had the pleasure to sit down with my friend and the head of nothing at The School of Nothing, Martin A. Ciecielski, to talk about our mutual favorite topic: nothing. We do that quite frequently and always with a lot of passion and gusto, but this time we have the entire talk recorded and available online, with the intention of sharing how we travel from nothing to nowhere. 

This discussion was a beautiful reminder and a refinement on why nothing plays a great role in my life and work and what it is that I have learned from the encounter. Throughout the hour, nothing takes different qualities and brings us among a variety of topics. We travel on the train of absurdity towards dance and movement, through the space uncertainty as a prerequisite for love, to beauty, courage, and the undeniable right we all have to do what we love; even if that something is nothing. 

The whole talk is on SoundCloud in two parts; go here for part 1, and here for part 2.

"It’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t stop people expressing themselves but rather force them to express themselves; what a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, and ever rarer, thing that might be worth saying."

Gilles Deleuze, Negotiations 1972-1990

You can find no more information on The School of Nothing here. 

If you wish to keep up to date on the school's activities, just drop me a line. 

Bon voyage!