Hasta La Ideas

Leave your mark in a massive notebook filled with handwriting for the future

by
Bryn Chernoff

Starting at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum in 2006, Cameroon-born artist Bili Bidjocka and Lausanne-born curator Simon Njami have been traversing the world inviting creatives of varied professional backgrounds to write on the blank pages of eight enormous books “as if it were their the last opportunity to hand write something.” Their project, called Ecriture Infinie, emphasizes the gestures of writing and the flow of pen on paper rather than actual content.

The project is a celebration of handwriting, and a call to attention around the 3,500-year-old practice that is rapidly fading from our daily lives. Each statement is filmed as it is entered, serving as a reflection on the process of writing and a documentation of the varying writing styles at this point in time. Once complete, each book is then sealed and hidden in a secret location until discovered.

The eighth and final book in the series is a collaboration with Moleskine, who created a massive version of their signature blank notebook and debuted it last week in Mantua, Italy at the Festivaletteratura.

Contributions can also be made to the project online, by submitting a video or images of your writing. The video created by Moleskine for the project shows great examples of the myriad ways people are contributing and the infinite styles of handwriting people possess.