In between the fold

Oana Avasilichioaei

“What is important in a text is not what it means, but what it does and incites to do. What it does: the charge of affect it contains and transmits. What it incites to do: the metamorphoses of this potential energy into other things – other texts, but also other paintings, photographs, film sequences, political actions, decisions, erotic inspirations, acts of insubordination, economic initiatives, etc.” (Jean-François Lyotard, Driftworks)

Might the book be the grounds for a poetic event, an event that not only extends outside of its pages, but an event that exists, or is folded, between the book object and another medium, space, action, technological interface? Might we then say that the poetry being written is neither in the book, nor in that other space, but in the fold between? “Folding-unfolding no longer simply means tension-release, contraction-dilation, but enveloping-developing, involution-evolution.” (Gilles Deleuze, The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque)

If we willingly step across or into this fold, if we write in a fold, do we transgress? And can such a transgression allow us to open up borders, to reinvent how we may thinks of margins, boundaries, edges? Standing on the border of myself, I recollect a carnival. Such is a self confining itself in language. An edge divulges entrance. “Le livre est l’œuvre du livre… Le livre multiplie le livre.” (Edmond Jabès, Le Livre des questions)

Border, you terrify me. Border, you must dictate your own dismantling or we shall all perish. Border, are you listening? Are you empire? The geography keeps shifting into bloom and decay, thus daring to future. Perhaps a meridian is what we look for. If you insist that I take sides, you will misplace me. Instead, I take a barrier to the woods and grow confusion, which might be a sign of health though a leader does not think so. Border, I walk along your edges and realize that what from a distance appeared as edge is simply a faded memory. The moment unravels around us, thought-struck. Border you are an idea of you and so impossible to margin. Border, are you listening? Are you hungry? Are you still hoping for empire?

July 4, 2011

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About Folding Borders

If we dare to enter the laboratory of Canadian poetry what experiments might we encounter? What transgressions might we be asked to face? The Folding Borders commentaries will focus on poets whose work exists on some kind of boundary/border, poetry that exists in-between, perhaps as intertext, perhaps as hybrid, perhaps as network. The border might be linguistic (i.e. work written in more than one language), technological (i.e. work that exists in some kind of interaction with technology), collaborative, sound-based, performance-based, digital (i.e. work that has both a printed and a digital form simultaneously), geographical, architectural or a combination of any of these.

Some of the strands in Oana Avasilichioaei’s work traverse geography and public space (feria: a poempark, 2008), textual architecture, orality and multilingualism (We, Beasts, upcoming 2012), translation and collaborative performance (Expeditions of a Chimæra, co-written with Erín Moure, 2009). Living in Montreal, recent projects include The Islands, a translation of Quebecoise poet Louise Cotnoir, “The Mapping Issue” (co-edited with Kathleen Brown for Dandelion Magazine) and collaborating with musicians and sound artists as hex laboratorium.

Jacket2 Commentaries feature invited posts by poets and scholars who take a close, serial look at poetry scenes, archives, poetic concerns, or theoretical clusters. Commentaries, although curated, are not edited by Jacket2 staff. We welcome your comments. Send queries and notes to Commentaries Editor Jessica Lowenthal or contact us at this page.