Tracées
"Tracées is the fruit of a double experience.
The drawings by Sébastien Conard, which are at the origin of the work, explore the gesture of drawing—the dynamic encounter between hand, ink, and paper—within the two fundamental constraints of any publication in book form: the dimensions of the sheet and the sequencing of drawn rhythms. The poems by Jan Baetens are written in response to these images. Without naming or illustrating the energies and metamorphoses they embody, they resonate with the drawings, both visually and through their own trajectories.
Rather than remaining opposite one another, words and images here recover their reflections, sometimes at close range, sometimes from afar, persisting within an infinitely indeterminate literary space.
The book was published in two cover variants, illustrating and reflecting upon this double experience." — Pierre Geurts (Hématomes)
Within the context of my postdoctoral research in the arts on traces, I boiled down drawing to simple vertical and horizontal lines, resulting amongst other things in this series of 27 drawings. Starting with straight ink lines, the drawings for Tracées evolve to more sinuous sketches and fish- or eyelike little traits, swirling through the space of the pages, only to find final rest as horizontal stripes. I asked Jan Baetens, with whom I worked before (on Restjes/Rabiots and Tant et tant), to write poems to accompany this series. His texts deals subtly with image, abstraction, colors (or lack thereof) and art history; they do allude but never illustrate nor paraphrase my drawings. Publisher Pierre Geurts knew exactly what format, shape and materiality our project needed to become an intriguing little book.
First presented @ Libros Mutantes, Madrid Art Book Fair, 24-26 April 2026.
27 black and white drawings, 105 words (FR), 112 pp., 14,8 x 21 cm, 150 copies, offset print, Hématomes, 2026.
ISBN : 978-2-931237-13-7
D/2026/14941/01