IT TOOK ME 4 MONTHS, 9 DAYS AND 23 HOURS TO COMPLETE TWO KILOMETERS WITH A BALLPEN

"It took me 4 months, 9 days and 23 hours to complete 2km with a ballpen" consists of a long roll of paper suspended from the ceiling and stretched across the room, occupying as much space as possible. The paper presents a long text written with a single pen until it runs out of ink. The text reflects on this very fact, on the ink of the pen and how much can be written with it. It raises a question about the essence of things, reflecting on whether one disappears when its functionality deteriorates, or whether one is also the things one does, and the essence persists in the facts or consequences.

 

The time the artist takes to write the text, which she does until the pen runs out of ink, is of special importance. The entire writing process is documented, recording time, dates, and schedules of the writing sessions. This documentation is presented to the viewer in the form of a video, so that he can immerse himself in the work process, a fundamental factor in Englebert’s work. Therefore, in addition to measuring the functionality of a pen in the distance it can cover with its own ink, the time in which this action is carried out is also measured.

 

In this work, object and explanation become one, in a particular symbiosis that blurs the limits between them. The object dematerializes, to transform the explanation into material, stripping the former of all reality, turning it towards the discourse. The latter takes on an objectual dimension, managing to express itself materially, without the need to resort to an external object.