The fourth Peep-Hole Sheet series starts with a contribution by Claire Fontaine on the concept of ‘human strike’. The essay investigates the central Marxian category of real abstraction, as the core defining the life under Capital, through the critical perspective of Alfred Sohn-Rethel. Deeply connected to the artists’ research, the text brings light to possible practices of reappropriation of life, of time, of relations, that start within it. “Writing about the human strike is itself the experience of a double bind, it’s like walking on a suspended wire between making things possible and exorcising them through language… When we inhabit language we place ourselves on the permeable membrane between life and desires, where it clearly appears that life and desires are made of the same fabric. Desiring together makes things come true even when they are not technically true”. Claire Fontaine, Human Strike Has Already Begun, 2009

Claire Fontaine (Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill) is a Paris-based collective founded in 2004.

Peep-Hole Sheet is a quarterly of writings by artists. Each issue is dedicated solely to one artist, who is invited to contribute with an unpublished text whose content is completely free in terms both of subject and format. The texts are published in their original language, with accompanying translation in English. Peep-Hole Sheet is meant for those who believe artists are catalysts for ideas all around us, and who want to read their words without any filter. Over time it aspires to build up an anthology of writings that might open new perspectives for interpreting and understanding our times. Peep-Hole Sheet is published and distributed by Mousse Publishing.