THE BLACK
FINGERS
We are a group of professional artists and calligraphers that come from France, Belgium and Italy. We've all been practising graphic arts for more than twenty years. We meet once a year in Burgundy (France) at Propières in order to work and research together in a relaxed atmosphere. Our research is based on the decision to question the most basic principles about graphic arts in general. Why use this tool to make this mark? Why have this type of lay out on this page? Should we use colour or matter for a background? We also like investigating into various alphabet forms that exist around the world and to see how we can use them to create new alphabets, signs, legible or illegible texts or abstract marks that might look really crazy or awesome! To have some knowledge of historical calligraphy, typography, graphism or painting is recommended, but is not obligatory to research into a particular theme. What is much more important is the capacity and the ability to question our own work, to have an alert and open mind, to laugh, and most of all, to be able to take a step back and not take ourselves too seriously! It's not always easy, since we all come from different backgrounds. However, our friendship is strong enough to accept our differences! We exchange information,and knowledge, by bringing a lot of different books on all sorts of subjects. Every day, someone presents his work, a case-study or a piece of his research that he wants to share. He then gives exercices or directions in order to work, think or debate about what has been presented. This enables us to have a pro-active reaction and helps us to go deeper into our research, provoking further questioning about what we do and how we go about it. Famous artists like Alechinsky, Soulage, Michaux or Kline have already experimented with the mark. Our aim is to understand their approach in order to enhance our creativity, free our mind, let it travel across the page and explore what lies behind a beautiful mark... |