013 ORIHON

from an exhibition which helps (me) think

As promised in the way, urbophilia 011, on 21 May 24 we have stepped out from our bubble into reality, which was neither less poetic nor less (ir)rational that the world we are trying to capture here. We treaded lightly, into a sublime moment of opening of orihon, an exhibition of drawings and paintings by Davisi Boontharm (the House of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia).

Davisi is an artist – who is an architect, who is an urbanist, an environmentalist, a professor in/of those disciplines in Bangkok, Tokyo, Milano, Ljubljana and a founding partner in co+re.partnership. Her orihon and urbophilia breath in unison. Over the years, I had an immense pleasure to witness the making of her artwork, which communicates much more than the lines and texts ever could. It was my great honour to write an essay for the catalogue of this exhibition unique, which I present here.

This is a raw text. Substack can still not handle urbophilia formatting. At the end of this page is you will find four pages, as published in the catalogue, which was masterfully designed by graphical designer Boris Kuk (who has previously collaborated with us in Japan, at Keio University’s co+labo radović).

*** 1 on form, simplicity
Orihon is just a book, a long, folded sheet of paper containing text, drawings, or both. In formal sense between the scroll and codex, it could be seen as superior to both, as it overcomes the clumsiness and risks of rolling and unrolling, and does away with linear progression dictated by bookbinding. Orihon are flexible. The text and images tend to be at one side only; unless decided otherwise.

Davisi Boontharm’s exhibition in Oris House of Architecture in Zagreb brings to a single place the largest ever number of her orihon sketches and drawings. When unfolded, these small, 9x14 cm Moleskin Japanese Albums add up to more than a hundred meters in length. Depending on the theme or an underlying mood, they were drawn and painted from left to right, or from right to left, with pencil, pen, brush, in watercolour or ink, by her right and, sometimes, left hand.

*** 2 on hands, and eyes

These irregularly kept visual diaries – drawn and painted by an artist who is also an architect, urbanist, and a distinguished academic in her native Asia, Europe and Australia – treasure records of a passionate searcher, re- searcher, of a researcher who is everywhere (thus, nowhere) at home. Living a veritable Situationist dérive (what a very few can sustain) provides her with unique experiences, enables flashes of thought and inspiration, which Davisi’s intuition and knowledge, talent and skills transform into experiences of orihon unfolding in us, in ways that are hard to predict.

The subjects of Davisi’s notations and reflections range from the tiniest of objects, often modest, yet precious mementos, to buildings, stretches of streets, fragments of boulevards, waterfronts and full townscapes – lived. Regardless of what the captured realities (always realities, as she paints only what she sees!) are (to her), these drawings and paintings express unique sensibility of the artist for detail and her keen passion for everyday spaces and manifestations of life, the realm of Perecian infraordinary1.

*** 3 on contents, complexity

Chinese ideograms which compose the original 折本 hint that there is much more behind the ultimate simplicity of folded paper. While kanji 本 (hon), along with the physicality of folds and pleat creases, means only a book, 折 (ori) points at complex combinations of opportunity, chance, occasion, and time – all at once presented to the eye and to erudition of the reader. That is an (in)justice inherent to ideogrammatic texts, where the depths of comprehension depend on abilities, erudition and sensibility of each individual reader. What unfolds there are provocations, a diversified, ultimate complexity (of our own making).

Both during the page-by-page writing (as drawing), and during our readings (as explorations), this format wants and it allows the contents to be approached in a variety of ways, as shorter or longer segments, and in full. It empowers us to seek, to find, to discover and to choose between a single story, the One, several or many stories, as told, as fold(ed), as (un)folding – first under Davisi’s pencil, pen, or brush, and then to our eyes and minds. One keeps on returning to a good orihon. In order to fully unfold what a single folded book might contain, one needs nothing less than Nancean comprehension of touch2, those complex, carnal yet erudite, erudite yet poetic insights.

*** 4 on the way (this segment suffers Substack formatting; see proper layout below)

Spatialities of orihon are both physical and experiential, lived, in the way in which our own, folded existential realities are. An engaged materiality of the fold, an (un)fold(ed) fold.

identifying what these wholes are

(re)combinations

multiplicity of readings, re-makings, interactions the play

a game standing

(under)standing
critical (un)understanding

heuristic (mis)understanding
as in Nancy’s phantasmagoric phrase “being singular plural”, where “these three apposite words, which do not

have any determined syntax ("being" is a verb or noun; "singular" and "plural" are nouns or adjectives; all can be rearranged in different combinations), mark an absolute equivalence, both in an indistinct and in a distinct way. Being is singularly plural and plurally singular”3.

Immersed in a good orihon, at least for a moment we can see, we can (chose to) see the One, (consisting of)

the Many, (which in themselves are the kaleidoscopes of) the Infinite4.

In a way, orihon is – the Way. It formats our thoughts and gestures.

*** 5 on entering this exhibition

Exhibitions invite many, and they tend to prioritise the eye. Exhibere asks a display, presention and showing off, holding out and holding forth – precisely the opposite to folding, which is the essential gesture of orihon – both as an object and as platform for multiple experiences. These folds were designed for intimate, private viewings. For a touch, and to touch.

Unique format of Davisi Boontharm’s visual diaries makes (un)folding an underlying rule of this exhibition. Unfolding sets an overall rhythm, the pulse that will guide a visitor through her contemplations on cities, architecture and, crucially, the lives lived there. With no pages to turn, the realities of orihon (un)fold. Eyes chose; a page, a detail, or a dot that completes the drawing; a diptych, triptych, or a polyptych; eyes can grasp the whole, take in the totality of the Work. The Oeuvre.

P .S.

On 21 May 2024, by unfolding her favourite three orihon, Davisi Boontharm has opened this exhibition and let the walks of the visitors unfold the rest. On 28 May she came back to the House of Architecture and folded her orihon back, into intimacy of their ancient format.

...

Darko Radović, Split, 28.4.2024.

References

1. 1  Perec, G., (1993), Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, London: Penguin Classics

2. 2  Derrida, J. (2005), On Touching - Jean-Luc Nancy, Stanford: Stanford University Press

3. 3  Nancy, J-L. (2000), Being Singular Plural. Stanford: Stanford University Press

4. 4  Radović, D. (2023), “The Positive Arrogance Hypothesis,” with Boontharm, in Mirages of the Future, Venice: La Biennale Architettura

My special thanks for making this extraordinary exhibition and catalogue possible go to Andrija Rusan, his Oris team, and Boris Kuk.