About

One morning I had to go to the printer, I had to get on the road and take a poster to the printer… to do this I had to leave the countryside, go all the way into town, all the way across town, get lost, miss the exit ramp, 2nd gear, 4th gear, 3rd finger… and thumb! Well okay, let’s do it like the ostrich and take the Little Ring Road, flash past all the good old Way Outs that I know by heart… where will this lead? Maybe into the void. But now suddenly, seamlessly the wheels are turning like windmills that record the face of your fellow-man, there where once there was nothing, or worse, simply the end of the line… now drive on straight, seamlessly, nevor a tremor, over the bridge, and on the other side, this shining new road (but where does it start? where does it end?) yes this shining road now unfolds on either side an unlimited landscape (but with what sense do I see it? Sight?) It is brand new but I recognize it (am I remote-controlled, am I hypnotized?) and besides, it could be the landscape that’s moving and not the car, a whirling countryside, or perhaps again it’s the road unwinding itself like a ribbon while the car stays in one place… like the car of that motorist asleep by the side of the road, keeping watch on the other side no doubt. As the sole witness of some déjà-vu come here to find “the certainty of a direction that will allow the traveller to retain the repose of his own meaning”. The road flows away like a moment in time that nothing can ever bring back, and yet, seems set to stay with all the permanence of something familiar (I know this because later I went back and it was still there. I passed a military convoy, all their headlights burning. In each truck, the driver’s mate was fast asleep). Perhaps it is not a good thing to be always awake there. Naturally, this new road bypassed the entire town – and led straight to the printer.

FREDERIC LAGNAU (1995)

English adaptation : JUSTICE OLSSON