ANDREY MONASTYRSKI
THE LINE
(1983)
Unlike all the previous “E.P.” objects, “The Line” is in itself a kind of “action” or, more precisely, a system of coordinates in which – as a result of the action “The Line” – a line was inscribed with a red marker. The moment of its application to the cardboard (March 1, 1:18 pm) was a moment of “Elementary Poetry.”
The action “The Line” consisted of two participants, who stood at the beginning of ulitsa Kondratiuka (on different sidewalks), being given envelopes by the author. The instructions on the envelopes invited one participant (Kisewalter) to move along the left sidewalk, looking only to the left and counting out 300 paces. After counting 300 paces, he was to look to the right at the street’s right sidewalk and, discovering the second participant, cross the street and walk up to him. Analogous instructions were found on the envelope of the second participant (Romashko), but he was invited to walk along the right pavement and look only to the right. Clearly, one of them would complete his trip more quickly than the other (most likely), which is what happened: Romashko was first in counting 300 paces and he came up to Kisewalter after crossing the street. After opening the envelopes, they each discovered inside identical cards containing a diagram of their movements along the street and hypothetical marks indicating the direction of their street crossings using a bunch of pencil lines. Glued to the cards were instructions inviting the participant who had crossed the street to use the red marker to trace (to inscribe) on his own card the pencil line that most closely corresponds to the true direction (the angle) in which the street was crossed, which Romashko did.
