“For nearly 20 years I have prepared for a day’s work in the summer studio by swimming. The crossing from land to water is ‘as different from air is from stone.’ It is the breaststroke that carries me along, always counting my counts as I breathe and stroke to a rhythm. As I swim, aware of my spine—that central spine—I think of [Saul] Bellow: ‘The truth of the universe is inscribed into our very bones. The human skeleton is itself a hieroglyph.”
LINDA SWIM II, SUMMER 2024
VILLA EMPAIN
“Individual interests direct our attention and therefore our focusing differently. A swimmer looks at water in another way than a fisherman or a painter”
Linda Swim II, Summer 2024 is Linda’s first public performance drawing in water.
When American artist Linda Karshan discovered the gridded pattern of the swimming pool at Villa Empain, she instinctively felt ‘it had to be swum’, with the same urge as the Chapter Room of the Abbey, with its perfect proportions, needed ‘to be walked’ during her exhibition at San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, in 2018.
Karshan’s performance drawings, on paper or in space, happen in a state of exceptional presence. They are guided by her ‘inner choreography’ and aspire to conditions of near-zero gravity.
“Art is not an object but experience”
Linda began by walking the room where her works on paper are displayed, before exiting the Villa for the swimming pool. You can follow her journey by clicking through the image gallery below.
Audience Q&A
Following the completion of the drawing, Linda answered questions from her audience, footage of which you can find below.
1. Villa as Inspiration
2. The Transitional Space
3. Template Method
4. A Clear Line
5. Walked Drawings
Benedicte Delay also conducted a Q&A conversation with Linda, the transcript of which is available HERE.
Linda Swim II, Summer 2024
Full video
Credits
This project, conceived by Linda Karshan, was part of the exhibition ‘’Josef and Anni Albers, Iconic couple of Modernism’ and supported by the joint curators Julia Garimorth, chief curator at Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, and Edouard Detaille at Josef and Anni Albers Foundation together with Louma Salamé, Director of the Boghossian Foundation -Villa Empain.
With many thanks to Caroline Schuermans and Anne-Claire Duperrier at Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain for their enthusiasm and support.
Video footage by Bénédicte Delay (full video) and Ali Karshan (audience Q&A).