WITTGENSTEIN’S LADDERPLUS = MINUS

Chemin d’Art, Saint-Flour, France, 2010.

NORBERT FRANCIS ATTARD

Wittgenstein’s Ladder

Wood, black paint, LED colour changeable lamps, LED lights for back-lighting.

Porte des Tuiles, Saint-Flour, France.

Plus equals Minus

Wood, black paint, 64 white light bulbs.

Porte des Roches, Saint-Flour, France.

Chemin d’Art

Organised by Centre Culturel La Passerelle, Saint-Flour, France.

In collaboration with the City Council of Saint-Flour, France.

Artistic Director, André Maigne.

Acknowlegements

Thibault Le Blanc, Personal Assistant.

Centre Culturel La Passerelle, Saint-Flour

Anne Cornet, Project Coordinator.

Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs

Supplied by BL illluminations, Saint-Flour, France.

Jean-Louis Besse, Director of BL illuminations.

Photography

Installation works by Norbert Francis Attard.

Saint-Flour and Garabit by Norbert Francis Attard, pp. 2, 3, 4, 5.

Process during works by Thibault Le Blanc and Norbert Francis Attard, pp. 9, 10, 11, 25.

Maltese churches by Norbert Francis Attard, p 20.

Portrait by Thibault Le Blanc, p 30, 31.

Portrait by Jean-Francois Ferraton, p 32.

Saint-Flour (pop. 7000), is located about 225 km south of Paris and 100 km south of Clermont Ferrand. Saint-Flour is tucked between two volcanic mountain regions in the Massif Central in France in the Haute Auvergne region, offering the traveller a chance to see the rural side of medieval France as well as the natural beauty of a volcanic landscape. Medieval Saint-Flour itself is perched on top of the Auvergne’s highest volcanic outcrops with part of the ancient city wall intact and the views of the surrounding countryside from the high town are spectacular.

The town’s history starts in the 4th century with the arrival of Christian evangelist Florus, who is said to have built a small chapel at the peak of the outcrop. In the medieval period, Saint Flour rivaled Aurillac as capital of the Auvergne because of its adventagious position on the trade routes.

Saint-Flour is found in the Cantal department, to the south of the Auvergne region, next to the Ander River. The town is divided into two distinct parts - an upper town, situated on a rocky cliff above the river, and a lower town. It is the historical upper town that is interesting to visitors. The rather austere Cathedral of Saint-Pierre is in the upper town on the Place des Armes, and features an unusual carved statue of Christ in black wood. Behind the cathedral there is a view across the lower part of the town. The central square in Saint-Flour is around the cathedral, and the historical streets that radiate off from here, feature some attractive buildings in the narrow streets of the old town. In the heart of the old town the streets are cobbled.

The Garabit Viaduct close to the town is interesting and attractive - it was constructed by Gustave Eiffel to allow trains to pass over the Truyere Gorges.

It is, as so often with Auvergne towns, the surrounding countryside that will attract you the most, with attractive rolling hills giving way to the more dramatic landscapes of the region.

GARABIT BRIDGE by Gustave Eiffel

WITTGENSTEIN’S LADDERWood, black paint, LED colour changable colour lamps, LED lights for back-lighting.Artistic director: André Maigne.Organised by Centre Culturel La Passerelle, Saint-Flour, France.Porte des Tuiles, Saint-Flour, France.Chemin d’Art, 2010.

WITTGENSTEIN’S LADDERWood, black paint, LED colour changable colour lamps, LED lights for back-lighting.Artistic director: André Maigne.Organised by Centre Culturel La Passerelle, Saint-Flour, France.Porte des Tuiles, Saint-Flour, France.Chemin d’Art, 2010.

Workplace at Municipal Technical Services

With Special Thanks to:

Municipal Technical Services of Saint-Flour

Romuald Rivière, Director of Municipal Technical Services.

Daniel Hugon, Carpentry.

Roland Brunnel, Carpentry.

Gilles Crozat, Electrician.

Hervé Delmas, Painter.

Olivier Rabillon, Elevator.

Hervé Charbonnel, Elevator.

My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way:

anyone who understands them eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them - as steps - to climb up beyond them.

He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it. (6.54)

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)

LUDWIG WITGGENSTEIN

Considered by some to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, Ludwig Wittgenstein played a central,

if controversial, role in 20th-century analytic philosophy. He continues to influence current philosophical

thought in topics as diverse as logic and language, perception and intention, ethics and religion, aesthetics

and culture. There are two commonly recognized stages of Wittgenstein’s thought — the early and the later

— both of which are taken to be pivotal in their respective periods. The early Wittgenstein is epitomized in his

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. By showing the application of modern logic to metaphysics, via language,

he provided new insights into the relations between world, thought and language and thereby into the nature

of philosophy. It is the later Wittgenstein, mostly recognized in the Philosophical Investigations, who took the

more revolutionary step in critiquing all of traditional philosophy including its climax in his own early work.

The nature of his new philosophy is heralded as anti-systematic through and through, yet still conducive to

genuine philosophical understanding of traditional problems.

My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way:

anyone who understands them eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them - as steps - to climb up beyond them.

He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it. (6.54)

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)

94 LED bulbs change colour gradually, forming shades of blue, purple, green, white, yellow, orange and red.

Roads, paths, stairs and ladders... they all lead somewhere. But does man ever truly reach the summit? Or does he come crashing down as soon as this pinnacle has been reached and acheived?

Life is merely a complex arrangement of stages, levels and phases – which could easily be symbolised as steps/rungs inevitably leading somewhere; each step/rung being as representative and meaningful as the previous or the next. That is what keeps man striving to reach a destination which is totally unbeknownst to him.

Ironically, on arriving at one’s desintation, the journey is over. Just as abruptly and unexpectedly as it began. But what if this pull, drawing us further into its core, making us climb higher and higher, were just a fascination with a mystery? Those many unanswered questions spur us on; unconsciously seducing us with the possibility of some great revelation or epiphany.

Thus the ladder – this simple ‘tool’ which raises so many questions and which has aided man throughout the ages - becomes the subject of an art installation by Norbert Attard who became intrigued by its many connotions, references and meanings.Attard draws inspiration from the biblical story of Jacob’s ladder among others, which uses the ladder to symbolise the communication between the physical and spiritual worlds. Similarly, in Mesopotamia the Ziggurat was named ‘the ladder to heaven’. Whilst in psychological terms this mystic symbol can be understood as the communication between the true self and the ego.

But closer to Attard’s home and roots, the ladder can be associated with the extensive bastions surrounding Valletta - Malta’s capital city - and in turn also with The Great Siege of 1565. The universal method for defending a town/city against enemy threats was the use of fortifications - high walls and ditches which supplemented natural features. Thus, fortifications played an all-essential role in the defence of towns and cities. Nevertheless, walls were beaten down, and broken into or escaladed relatively easily through the simple use of ladders.

With all this context and history borne in mind, Attard has developed his ladder installation – a propped up illusion of a tool which appears to have a function but which in reality only possesses form and meaning. This luminous ladder is there to remind us of the light at the end of the tunnel; of the overcoming of obstacles; of the phases in life. This ladder need not be fixed to any one space, site or context but can be adapted, reinterpreted and relocated to suit several.

Just as Wittgenstein used the ladder as a metaphor to signify the transcendence of his propositions; Attard has devised his own ladder to manifest a similar premise to Wittgenstein’s - yet through physical rather than linguistic means.

LISA GWEN BALDACCHINO

PLUS = MINUSWood, 64 white light bulbs.Artistic director: André Maigne.Organised by Centre Culturel La Passerelle.Porte des Roches, Saint-Flour, France.Chemin d’Art, 2010.

A Maltese traditional custom is to place coloured light bulbs onto the facade of the churches during Festa time.

The three most commonly used mathematical symbols are placed on a wall on the side of a road leading to a gateway. The plus, minus and equals signs are constructed out of wood with systematically positioned light bulbs along the forms. The latter directs a simple horizontal left to right movement, a formal aspect which visually deceives one of its depth of thought. Both the light and form, additionally combined with place, resulted in an environment dominated by a work of art and posed questions on paradoxes, contradictions and finding the intermediary element. The plus and minus signs (+ and −) are mathematical symbols used to represent the notions of positive and negative as well as the operations of addition and subtraction. Their use has been extended to many other meanings, more or less analogous. Plus and minus are Latin terms meaning “more” and “less”, respectively. Just like Wiigenstein’s ladder is a ladderless ladder, so is the statement PLUS = MINUS an equationless equation. It’s real meaning is not to be found in mathematics. Very much like real life situations (like for example good and evil), PLUS and MINUS co-exist such that one cannot exist without the other. To understand PLUS, one has to know and understand MINUS, and vice versa. This is why they are equal, but not identical.

The work plays on the notion of signs. Mathematical signs are displayed as street signs, so what does the intermeshing of the two transmute into? There is a meeting of the academic, the intellectual, the scientific with the public, the everyday and with everyone. Yet, isn’t mathematics used by all on a daily basis? In addition, shouldn’t art be experienced by the masses in areas open for public commuting? Attard studies such an idea by posing a visual idea to the common individual, hence filling the often disparate void between the intellectual and the popular and thus giving depth to the beforehand almost unnoticed wall against which the work was placed.

Besides the dialectic raised by Attard’s work, it is also of personal significance to the artist as it alludes to the aesthetic of the Maltese Festa, or religious feast. The lights encasing the signs are the indication for this last element. During the period of the religious feasts, local churches are adorned from dome to pavement with various coloured light bulbs, some even spelling out words of religious praise. So this fact illuminates the possibly largest contradiction found in PLUS=MINUS - the opposition of reason and knowledge with religion and faith. Finding out this element all depends on whether one reads into the light or into the maths.

NICOLA PETRONI

Short Biography

> Born in Malta in 1951. Lives and works on the island of Gozo (Malta), and since 2010 in Berlin (Germany).

> Graduated in Architecture from the University of Malta in 1977, practicing the profession as architect for twenty years until 1996.

> Lived in Germany in 1978 / 1979 working with the firm ‘Licht in Raum’, directed by Johannes Dinnebier, one of Germany’s pioneers in light design.

> Turned to installation art in 1998. His present practice employs several disciplines including architecture, sculpture, video and photography.

> His works have been included in many major international exhibitions such as Ruhr-Atoll, Essen, Germany (2010); 5th Biennial Vento Sul, Curitiba, Brazil (2009); 25th Alexandria Biennial, Egypt (2009); CUBE OPEN, Manchester, UK (2009); 2nd Bienal de Canarias, Canary Islands (2009); INHABIT 09, in collaboration with Brisbane City Council, Australia (2009); ARRIVALS, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK.(2008); Irish Museum of Modern Art (2008); Intrude 366 : Art and Life, organized by Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China (2008); 3rd Echigo Tsumari Triennale, Japan, (2006); Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2005); Casoria Museum of Contemporary Art, Naples, Italy (2005); ARTIADE, Athens, Greece (2004); 8th Havana Biennale (2003); Paths to Europe, Macedonia Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece (2003); 2nd Liverpool Biennale (2002), Edinburgh International Festival, Scotland (2002); and in Floating Land, International Site Specific Art Laboratory, Noosa, Queensland, Australia (2001), amongst many others.

> Represented Malta in the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999.

> He is director of GOZO CONTEMPORARY since 2001, an art space, offering self-directed residencies to local and international artists on the island of Gozo.

> Attended several residency programs: Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts (VCCA), U.S.A., 2010.Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland., 2008.Turner Contemporary (in collaboration with Oxford Modern, UK), Margate, UK., 2007.Europos Parkus, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2006.Taipei Artists Village, Taipei, Taiwan, 2005.(KAIR) Kamiyama, Japan, 2004.

Photo by Thibault Le Blanc

Norbert Francis Attard

9, Birbuba Street, Gharb, GRB1435, Gozo, Malta.

Tel: 00356 21560016

Fax: 00356 21559098

Mobile: 00356 79041051 (Malta)

Mobile: 0049 17635777993

Email: norbert@norbertattard.com

www.norbertattard.com

Skpe: norbertfrancisattard

Photo by Jean-Francois Ferraton