A VIEW FROM STRASBOURG

Presently in Strasbourg. An interesting city. The signs round and about are in the French style, yet I have no feeling that I am in France. There is something about the place that has a feeling of no particular place at all. It is European. One cannot help but appreciate the variety of languages, being spoken by one and all, indicates that the city is very specifically located in Europe.

Mozart spent some time here and Jean Arp was born here in 1886. Arp grew up speaking both French and German. Indeed probably most of Strasbourg’s citizens grew up bilingual; yet the city does not have an atmosphere either French or German. The recently completed new Museum of Modern Art has a room dedicated to Jean Arp. It is not surprising that Arp was a founding member of Dada. 

The European Parliament, situated at the junction of the River Lil and the Canal de la Marne et du Rhin, is surprisingly a very moving building. There is a feeling about the place that makes one marvel at its very achievement. The European Court of Human Rights just across the junction is equally impressive. Outside the Court, along the quay, are a few tents of petitioners and protesters. All very civilised.

As much as I am in favour of European Union, as solid as the buildings appear to be and despite the 55 years since the Treaty of Rome, there is still a feeling of fragility in the air. That should not be. There can be no argument that it was and is the right thing to do. Strengthening the Union, any union, can only be a good thing.

I think I prefer the French name for the Court - Le Palais des Droits de l’Homme.  The word droit in French signifies a number of literal translations: 

The Palace of the rights of man.

The Palace of the laws of man.

The Palace of the duty of man.

The Palace of the debts of man.

The Palace of the name of man. 

The combined signification of all those words - the unification of interpretants, the representamen - in a single sign droit is as powerful a performance one can get in the writing of a simple word.

How dada is that?