Book contents
Chapter 2 - The Love Object
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2021
Summary
The question “where is the thing?” is inseparable from the question “where is the human?”
GIORGIO AGAMBENMeet Eija-Riitta Eklöf – Berliner-Mauer – for all intents and purposes a typical middle-aged woman living in the small village of Liden in Northern Sweden. The name, however, may have already alerted some readers to the fact that Eija-Riitta is not your ordinary Swedish woman, since she claims to have been married to the Berlin Wall since 1979.
Perhaps it is best to hear the story straight from her (or at least, straight from her website):
I have built models of The Berlin Wall, also models of other things, such as Bridges, Fences etc. I have made a number of models of The Berlin Wall. Their names are The Berlin-Wall Jr. VI, Gartie, Lill-Murre, the others are called The Berlin- Walls Jr. I, Jr. III, Jr. V, Jr. VII and Jr. VIII.
My family are The Berlin Wall, he doesn't live here, and the models of the Berlin Wall. This needs a short explanation. I am objectum-sexual that is to be sexually and emotionally attracted to objects; in my case. It is the actual Wall I love, not the border – like some intolerant people seem to think. They fail to see difference between the Wall and the purpose, which are two completely different things. If you fail to see that – well, too bad! The purpose is irrelevant to me.
This statement may prompt most of us to assume that we are already in the realm of the pathological, or at least dealing with someone who should be approached under the abstract auspices of “mental health.” However, we should not be overly hasty in judging Mrs Eklöf-Berliner-Mauer's love for objects, for this love may be merely an intense version of something we all feel from time to time, and thus reveals something significant about an age which – at least since Marx – is “regulated by an ultimate object outside itself; consumption.”
Before exploring the various versions of objectum sexuality (both within and beyond manifestations of a “syndrome”), perhaps we should hear more about this love:
Since many people have asked me what that is, I’ll try to explain, as good as possible.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Avoiding the SubjectMedia, Culture and the Object, pp. 37 - 56Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2004