The title of the series is taken from a concept refined by the late French critical theorist Jacque Derrida. Prior to Derrida, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant had defined parerga as that which is outside the intrinsic work and ultimately as “ornament.” Derrida clarified the definition variously as “frame” and “edge”, understood as the limit between what is considered to be inside the work and outside of it. In contrast to the “ergon” (the work), the parergon is an addition, a supplement. Derrida proposed that the parergon functions without being a part of it yet without being absolutely extrinsic to it. It is never simply outside or inside but rather in the ambiguous space in between.
text by Babak Golkar