2000 Pieces / Infinite Singular by Maricel Álvarez is a poetic reflection on the concepts of otherness and identity based on the reading of the face as a philosophical and poetic category.
According to philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas, the face is an epiphany, a visitation that expresses itself and signifies. And that signification overflows the plastic forms that cover it like a mask of their presence to perception. What underlies this is “extreme exposure, helplessness, vulnerability itself.”
Our face is exposed to the others. It is for the others, just like the face of the others is for us, says Lévinas. And the encounter with the face of the other is a commotion that morally awakes us - as it takes us away from our self-centeredness. We have to encounter the “naked” face of the other, no matter who the bearers are, or their names.
This work centers on the hypothesis that the face is given and hidden, inherited and created, accomplished and constructed, unfolded in masks that typify it, regulate it and fictionalize it.
This work conceives the face as unique, untranslatable and boundless, just like the infinite singular of the other, of every other. The multiple pieces that make up the face, like those of a jigsaw puzzle, fit together delicately and conclusively. Yet, the secret is never revealed. It continues to be a blank paper on which we keep writing the most complex and eloquent texts: the great book of nature, of the divine alphabet, in the words of Johann Kaspar Lavater.
