Frédéric Pajak's 'Manifeste incertain' Blends Text and Image

Frédéric Pajak's 'Manifeste incertain, vol. 1' (Noir sur Blanc) continues his genre of 'récits écrits et dessinés,' where images are autonomous and narrative, not merely illustrative. The book centers on 'the war of time,' the absurd sensation of its flow, and the persistence of the past in the present. Walter Benjamin's figure runs through the work, focusing on his travels by boat, stays in Capri and Ibiza, and his role as a thinker of memory and orality from 'The Storyteller' and 'Theses on the Philosophy of History.' Pajak's aesthetic of fragments and attempts aligns with an ethics of despair and solitude, opposing the cult of the present. He assumes the role of a moralist, drawing from his childhood, his father's death, and detours via Bram Van Velde and Sicily, crafting a praise of withdrawal, timidity, and the madness of being oneself. The review by Laurent Perez in artpress highlights how Pajak's text-image confrontations demonstrate the 'perfectly inexpressible' nature of the 'total and absolute truth' he seeks.