Brief aan anoniem before 1897

Curator: Today, we’re looking at "Brief aan anoniem," a letter by Stéphane Mallarmé dating back to before 1897. The medium is simple: pen and ink on paper. Editor: My first impression is that of a palimpsest of the soul, a raw outpouring captured spontaneously. Curator: Precisely. Look at the deliberate scratching out, the hurried script—the physical act of writing and the very material of paper and ink, become tools to embody and express interior thoughts. It is not pristine; we witness a man at work. Editor: Note the strategic placement of words, however, such as his own name. Mallarmé signs his work, yes, but the flourishes of the ink resemble wings or anchors—these words take on an almost heraldic significance. There’s a powerful symbolic resonance here. The text itself hints at “relics,” “monuments,” suggesting he was well aware of the power and permanence of symbols, perhaps even imbuing himself with it. Curator: Indeed. The very notion of a ‘pen sketch’ emphasizes a work in progress, more idea than final, static object. His edits reflect a deliberate construction through erasures, moving far beyond just transcription. We observe Mallarmé curating and crafting as he articulates his thought process in physical form, turning thought to substance and imbuing matter with a specific aesthetic form. Editor: Do you see the “Vers,” and allusions to place “La Haye,” which can become signifiers that ground him while, also existing within the mental and emotional space he occupies? To me this all contributes to the construction of both inner and outer realities. His manipulation and arrangement on the page transforms what we would traditionally understand as "correspondence" to a rich symbolic artifact. Curator: His engagement with the very matter through language, becomes itself an aesthetic performance and labor of expression. Editor: I come away understanding his visual symbolism as inextricably linked to his perception and projection of personal history. Thank you, Mallarmé, for leaving these indelible markers.