The postcard, a furtive encounter with art

Le Regard Libre N° 72 - Vinciane Vuilleumier

Hors Cadre« series, episode 3

We hang it on the wall, stick it in a notebook, slip it into a book, send it to a loved one, keep it preciously in a wooden box with the rest of the collection: the postcard is everywhere. There's nothing quite as vivid a feeling as finding a postcard in a second-hand book that wasn't once ours, and which bears the markings of an exchange or a memory we've missed.

The discovery significantly alters the book and the moment of reading. It's a trace of time, one of those that have a particular flavour: like the wear on an inherited object or the old dedication on the flyleaf, the postcard whose origin is unknown is a point of tension, a tiny break in the continuity of space. The objects that surround us, in our daily lives, are a point of tension, a tiny break in the continuity of space.