White paper for Friedrich

Holderlin has haunted me throughout my entire life; that I realized the very day I found him. As far as his work, “the poet’s obscure years”, is frequently the recurrent formulation when referring to his years of dementia. However, on reading his “poems on madness”, the White grows from his words and my thoughts. (the White on the other hand, which I have always associated with silence and solitude). White, the no-color; like the no-word: therefore, I felt that white was the Color of madness. Let colors be privy to the sane (that trodden garden)…madness however, is like whiteness and unlike darkness; madness is like luminosity yet unlike lucidity or hope. …Thus, like a withered child, the golden Holderlin returns to sing his song, a white lullaby that doth not seek sleep but the invincible insomnia which kindles the shining of the Immaculate Madness.

These white drawings are for you, my dear Holderlin, for perhaps no one has ever been able to see so transparently.

Marcelo Bordese
Autumn, 2008