surface
The surface is a metaphysical quality. The visual world is manifested upon it.
The surface acquires its true value in the relationship with the space it borders, and not in the relationship with the space it limits. Thus, the surface has two main aspects:
- It limits the space; in this case, the surface is a transparent membrane which gathers the elements of space, of background, which thus become visible.
- The surface borders a certain space; the surface is the transparent membrane which divides two entities one from another, the boundary which divides the fields of gravitation or the intimate spaces of objects.
The space between the surfaces is occupied by intermediary space. If these surfaces are the facades of buildings, the space is named a square. The square only exists between the surfaces and because of them. Therefore, the space of the square is emptiness.
The surface delimits two spatial entities.
The surface is neither the interior nor the exterior of something, but the field on which the exterior and the interior meet in an indistinct and indeterminable relationship At this point, on the surface, something exterior and something interior are the most powerful.
What are the boundaries of the square? Are these boundaries the facades of houses surrounding it? The trees and their crowns? Where is the boundary of the square if it opens out into a road? Where is the boundary between Liberty Square and Main Square? Where is the boundary between two towns, two countries, two planets, two solar systems? Is the boundary a fine transparent surface, a physically indeterminable visual barrier? Is the boundary a line, or a surface (plane)?
square
The square does not exist as a separate unit. A separate entity, independent of the outer world, does not exist in the nature. The square is a part of the city, a part of the landscape, the Earth, the universe. The square is limited by buildings, trees, tree crowns and trunks, with the line of the pavement, and other elements; a precise definition of the boundaries of the square is impossible. The square can be defined only through a radical intervention, convention, or manifesto. Only with such an intervention in the space of the square does the ideological apparatus which apparently defines the square disappear, and the only thing which remains is the square, the square as a situation. The limited space of the square is turned inside out as a glove.