État de nécessité («State of necessity») is a juridicial notion that consists in authorizing an illegal action in order to prevent the achievement of a greater damage. (1)

« We are right to revolt », as Sartre once said.

« Chomsky tried to show that we can study language as an instrument and a tool, trying to describe its structure without explicitly referencing the way that tool is used by focusing on the grammar. A sentence doesn’t necessarily need a meaning for it to be grammatically correct: everyone can make the difference between «Colourless green ideas sleep furiously» and «*Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.».» (2) (3)

Where will we throw away the ashes of the old world? all the same, strange formula.

Wouldn’t that be selling the bear’s skin, before even having caught the bear?

1. Crim. 9 novembre 2004 : Bull. crim. 1994 n° 273 p. 1022
2. La Vie énigmatique des signes : Saussure et la naissance du structuralisme, Patrice Maniglier, 2006, Non & Non, Editions Léo Scheer
3. Nuit debout : une expérience de pensée, Patrice Maniglier, 2016, Les Temps Modernes, vol. 691, no. 5, pp. 199-259.

 

 

Exhibition text by Haydée Marin-Lopez, for «État de nécessité» at giselle, Toulouse, 2019. (Translated to english)