Counting Up In SignsAxel Malik's 'Increasing Countdown'

1 September 2021, by Webmaster

Photo: A. Malik

Starting today, Axel Malik, currently Artist in Residence at CSMC, begins his ‘Increasing Countdown’. In this unique project, he will extend a sequence of script-like characters day by day - for 754 days, until 25 September 2023.

Delving into Axel Malik’s ‘Library of Unreadable Signs’ promises manifold astonishing discoveries. His characters have the precision and elegance of script – and yet they lack any semantic content. None of them is exactly like the other. Seen together, they evoke a perplexing picture: they are unreadable but not illegible.

As Artist in Residence, Malik embarks upon an extraordinary project today: his ‘Increasing Countdown’, a digital writing band that can be accessed on the CSMC’s website, will be supplemented day by day with a sign-like character. ‘Unlike a countdown that ignites at its end, the crucial events take place during the countdown', says Malik in an Interview with Bruno Reudenbach. 'At the end, 754 characters will form a complex one-line “text” – which to follow in its entirety will take over an hour.’ 

The target date for the Increasing Countdown is 25 September 2023 – the day when a major international conference begins at CSMC. Until then, Malik will accompany the scientific activities at the Centre with further artistic interventions.