Précipités de lenteur

Précipités de lenteur (Precipitates of slowness) is composed of two strips, “offcuts” of paper left at the disposal of visitors. Organised from A to D, like the sides of a vinyl record double album, an essay on the political economy of music, written for the Flextime exhibition, is reproduced in violet ink on these pages. Very small characters are used, implying an unhurried reading of the essay, which, through an analysis of various sound experiments carried out on deceleration, questions the ideology of speed governing today’s society. In the era of high frequency trading, the 24/7 lifestyle, the championing of mobility and the general acceleration of social change, these experiments constitute a critique in action, an attempt to delay or even a retreat from the imperatives to speed up. The essay can however be read differently: charting a course through these musical references, it can also be understood as a paratext, referring more or less explicitly to various works in the exhibition.