The LetterS
pace Department
⁍ P R O J E C T S
Double You I Am Was
To Hum and Haw; A Conjugated Silence
A King Listens
⁍ C O L L E C T I O N S
lesdits-mension (à la lettre)
...so much for full stops
noting no thing
abc école d’Ostende
⁍ T L S D ST··O··R··E
A Score for A Case of Stairs
ConText
Reclaiming I in Institute
11 x 19,5 cm
54 pages
edition of 500
2023
Made on the occasion of Playground festival 2023 at Museum M, Leuven
Published by The Ladder Space Department
€15
At the threshold of the museum, a voice is missing.
In the entrance staircase, an edited echo of The Spiral Staircase resounds—its words erased, its breath retained. What remains are the visceral traces of presence: a sigh, a shuffle, a door’s soft protest, a restrained laugh. The film’s narrative is undone, leaving only the pulse of embodiment—the language of hesitation and return.
The sound, lasting 15 minutes and 34 seconds, awakens as the visitor enters by a motion censor. It follows from behind, inhabiting the space one step later, as if the building itself were remembering. To step into the work is to step out of it—to encounter oneself at the moment of departure.
The publication a Score for a case of stairs transcribes this choreography of sound into text, its spacing and design inscribed upon the museum’s floorplan. Reading becomes an act of walking; the page, a topography of listening.
Inspired by Diderot’s L’esprit de l’escalier—the thought that arrives too late—the project unfolds in three gestures: an audio installation, a printed score, and the displacement of Guy trap op trap af by Guy Mees.