Margins

Recess

Recess begins where function falls away. Labour shapes the body through gesture, rhythm, and expectation. When that order recedes, we return to a space free from task, duty, and use. In this interval, action is loosened from necessity, and presence is restored to its own duration. Yet the performed function of labour continues as habit, mimicry, and inward demand. Sometimes the absence of function is felt as release. Sometimes it appears as a loss of meaning. Recess is this uncertain passage into aimless time, where freedom must be learned again after the self has been shaped by what it was required to enact.

Places and dates
Paris, 2013; Newcastle, 2018; Leuven, 2021; Liège, Geraardsbergen, and Ostende, 2022; Namur, 2023; Messina, 2024; Istanbul, Beijing, and Tokyo, 2025.