Derrida at Villette: (An)aesthetic of Space

Abstract

In the early 1980s, Jacques Derrida, together with Peter Eisenman, participated in the Paris Parc de La Villette project under the direction of head architect Bernard Tschumi. Tasked with the production of a “garden,” Derrida and Eisenman took their inspiration from the platonic concept of the khôra. Ultimately six times over budget, the Derrida/Eisenman garden was not included in the Parc de la Villette; the only record of the experiment being Chora L Works, a collection of transcripts and essays documenting the various meetings and exchanges between Eisenman, Tschumi, and Derrida. These exchanges, read together with Derrida’s broader consideration of the khôra (in particular) and of the trace (more generally), can be seen to form a dialogue on the aesthetics of space. But this is not mere architectural discussion or theory; Derrida’s implicit and explicit discussions of space imply a particular textual and typographic practice that implicates works such as Glas, The Post Card, and The Truth in Painting not to mention Chora L Works itself. Through the columns of Glas, framed by the borders of The Truth in Painting, the structural and literal holes of Chora L Works invite the consideration of the Derridean architextual practice – from the aesthetics of the textual space to the anesthetics of spatial text.