Marcel Duchamp and the Forestay Waterfall Symposium Concert Intervention Exhibitions – Marcel Duchamp

A scholarly examination of Duchamp’s scientific, artistic, and philosophical investigations of the infra-thin

What the Work Is

This is a 2011 publication edited by Stefan Banz that documents a series of events centered on Marcel Duchamp’s work and ideas, specifically focusing on his engagement with the Forestay Waterfall and his concept of the “infra-mince” (infra-thin). The work brings together scholarly contributions, including a substantial essay by art historian Antje von Graevenitz, alongside documentation of symposium proceedings, concerts, interventions, and exhibitions held at multiple venues in Switzerland: the Salle Davel, Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp, Galerie Davel 14, and the Forestay Waterfall site itself.

What the Book Is About

The publication centers on Marcel Duchamp’s multifaceted intellectual project, particularly his notes on the “infra-mince” developed between 1934/35 and 1945. The work examines Duchamp not merely as a visual artist but as a figure operating across scientific, philosophical, and semiotic domains. The Forestay Waterfall serves as both a literal site and a conceptual anchor for exploring Duchamp’s investigations into phenomena that exist at the threshold of perception—those barely perceptible differences and transitions that fascinated him throughout his later career. The book documents how contemporary artists, scholars, and musicians engaged with these ideas through performance, exhibition, and critical analysis.

Key Ideas and Themes

The central intellectual contribution comes from Antje von Graevenitz’s essay “Duchamp as a Scientist, Artifex and Semiotic Philosopher, His Notes of the ‘Infra-Mince’ (1934/35-1945),” which presents Duchamp as operating simultaneously in three distinct but interconnected roles. As a scientist, Duchamp approached artistic problems with methodical observation and experimentation. As an artifex—a maker or craftsman—he engaged with materials and processes in ways that bridged traditional artistic practice with conceptual investigation. As a semiotic philosopher, he explored how meaning is generated, transmitted, and perceived, particularly in those liminal spaces where distinctions become almost imperceptible.

The concept of the infra-mince, or infra-thin, represents one of Duchamp’s most elusive yet significant contributions to twentieth-century art theory. This notion addresses phenomena that exist at the very edge of measurability: the warmth left in a chair just vacated, the difference between two mass-produced objects, the separation between front and back of a thin sheet of paper. These are not merely poetic observations but investigations into the nature of difference, identity, and perception itself. Duchamp’s notes on this subject, developed over more than a decade, reveal a sustained philosophical inquiry into what constitutes the minimal conditions for distinction and meaning.

The Forestay Waterfall itself becomes a subject of investigation within this framework. Waterfalls, with their constant flow and perpetual transformation, embody the kind of threshold phenomena that interested Duchamp—simultaneously stable in form yet never the same from moment to moment, visible yet composed of countless invisible droplets, producing sound through the interaction of water and air. The waterfall serves as a natural manifestation of the kinds of subtle transitions and transformations that Duchamp sought to capture in his artistic and philosophical work.

Structure and Approach

The work combines multiple forms of documentation and scholarly inquiry. It includes the proceedings of a symposium dedicated to examining Duchamp’s ideas, documentation of a concert that presumably engaged with Duchampian concepts through sound, records of artistic interventions that responded to or extended Duchamp’s investigations, and exhibitions held across multiple venues. This multi-venue, multi-format approach mirrors Duchamp’s own interdisciplinary methodology, refusing to confine the investigation to a single medium or mode of inquiry. The inclusion of von Graevenitz’s substantial scholarly essay provides theoretical grounding for the various artistic and performative responses documented elsewhere in the volume.

Significance and Influence

The publication represents a significant contribution to Duchamp scholarship by focusing sustained attention on his later theoretical work, particularly the infra-mince notes, which have received less attention than his earlier readymades and major installations. By bringing together scholarly analysis with contemporary artistic responses, the work demonstrates the continuing relevance of Duchamp’s investigations into perception, meaning, and the boundaries of art. The choice to center these inquiries around a specific natural site—the Forestay Waterfall—grounds abstract philosophical concepts in concrete, experiential reality, offering a model for how historical avant-garde ideas can be reactivated through site-specific engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration.