Aporia

There are paths that never start and others that never reach their destination. There are paths that hang in an uncertain plane, as if the step to take and the step that leads to the plateau were missing. The staircase tells the story of this suspended state.

A staircase rises through space, yet its course appears immediately compromised. The first step is missing, and so is the last: access is denied, while the possibility of arrival seems to dissolve before the destination can ever be reached. And yet, within the void that receives and contains this trajectory, the perception of a possible movement remains intact: there are no suspended planes. The steps that still endure preserve the memory of the past and the projection of the future; they suggest a direction, evoking a gesture that can only be partially accomplished, as permitted by the human condition.
The absence of the first step prevents one from entrusting oneself to the initial movement and demands liberation from the a priori notions that reassure us at the outset of every journey. There is no point from which to begin, no surface upon which to place one’s foot before setting out; one can only entrust the body with the decision to venture forth. Even before the journey begins, there is already the absence of every certainty. Yet it is the absence of the final step that gives structure to this condition of suspension: the impossibility of carrying the body beyond the limits of the finite. Having traversed the exertion of the ascent, precisely when the destination seems within reach, the point of arrival disappears. It is impossible to know where the staircase leads, or to cross the boundary imposed by its very structure: the mind may wander beyond it, but the body can do no more than come to a halt within the tangible world.
Between these two insubstantial spaces, the journey unfolds. It is at this material point that the image finds its focus: not in the missing steps themselves, but in the space they open up and in the tension they generate towards transition. The staircase thus becomes an emblem of change and of the desire to move forward, enveloped in the uncertainty that accompanies every direction one chooses to pursue. One may discern the path without being able truly to traverse it; one may intuit a destination without being able to reach it, without this necessarily entailing any sense of failure.