An Infinite Line (1 kilometre)

2017, 1 kilometre of hand-cut linen thread. Photographer: Document Photography. Videographer: Tom Compagnoni.

An Infinite Line (1 kilometre) explores the divisibility of space and matter through a simple action. A length of linen thread measuring one kilometre is cut by hand into fragments as small as physically possible. Through this process, the kilometric line is gradually reduced to a small mound of particles.

The work draws on ideas of infinite divisibility, in which any continuous form can be divided endlessly into ever smaller parts. As the thread is cut, the kilometre is reconfigured from an extended line into a dense accumulation, shifting its scale from the measurable to the infinitesimal.

Rather than resolving the line, the action reveals its paradox: a finite length that can be divided without limit. The work holds this tension between the finite and the infinite, where reduction becomes a means of extension and the smallest scale opens toward infinity.