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line began to lose importance over time and the freer, lyrical line gained prominence. Words occasionally crop up in Buedts’drawings. The most common, perhaps, is zelfkant, meaning ‘selvedge ’, ‘fringe’ or ‘border’. In the sense of ‘fringe’ it is generally used for the fringes of society. The first, original meaning of the word, however, refers to the generally reinforced woven edges of a textile. In this context, in the essay Frontiers of Utopia, the French semiologist Louis Marin explores the meaning of the French word, lisière, which also translates as ‘selvedge ’, ‘fringe’ or ‘border’ : “a term used for both the edge of a textile and the edge of a wood or village. This term no longer signifies a route, but rather a no-man’s land. The lisière is the space of a gap, but
Console, 2006 Eik, krijt, potlood, gips / Oak, chalk, pencil, plaster, 24 x 27 x 10,5 cm Privécollectie / Private collection
Frank Maes
uncertain of its limits, as when a land, an estate, a forest have simply their own edge, with no other limit in front, just a wild or an undetermined place”.5 Raf Buedts fostered a fascination with the unde termined place in the twilight zone under the table. His very first three-dimensional creation was a ‘circlesquare’ table (Vici-table, 1971), the top of which could take on the shape of either a square or a circle. It always served as a dining table at Buedts’ home. By the artist’s own account, he started creating furniture because he had no money to buy any. According to Marco Meneguzzo, the choice, as artist, 5. Louis Marin, ‘Frontiers of Utopia’, in Utopias and the Millennium, K. Kumar and S. Bann, eds., (London : Reaktion Books, 1993).