Public Space
Iapetus
Steel, 8 x 6 x 6 meters, Angoulême, 1985
Jedes Dasein scheint in sich rund "Each being seems inherently round", said Karl Japers according to Gaston Bachelard's account in his "phénoménologie du rond" in the last chapter of La poétique de l'espace. It is true that the term round is a surprisingly generic term: it can just as easily describe a space, a plane figure, or even the taste of a wine. Thelonious Monk — with the subject presently under consideration it would be unthinkable not to mention his name entirely : Thelonious Sphere Monk, composed a theme called Misterioso based on the harmonic progression of major sixths and minor sixths. If we transfer the inescapably linear character of written music by regrouping the entire succession of notes of this theme in one single place on the staff, which is to say by reading the music in profile, two concentric rings appear, formed by the structure of the composition.
