본 연구는 마르셀 뒤샹의 사후에 출판된 엥프라멩스 노트를 연구 대상으로 하여 그가 천착했던 엥프라멩스의 개념을 분석하고 노트에 제시된 예를 통해 그 구체적인 양상을 살펴보는 것을 목적으로 한다. 엥프라멩스는 1934/1935년경부터 1945년까지 뒤샹이 파편적인 메모 형식으로 남긴 단상의 주제로, ‘극도로 얇은’ 막이나 간격 혹은 그러한 간격에 의한 분리라는 일차적인 의미 외에 그것을 넘어서는 흐름이나 이행이라는 확장된 뜻을 내포하고 있다. 본고는 엥프라멩스 노트의 46개 메모에 담긴 명시적 의미와 내포된 함의를 헤아려, 논의의 내용을 (1) 가능태, (2) 분리와 간격, (3) 망각의 알레고리, (4) 감각의 혼융(混融)과 차이 그 자체, (5) 차원 이동과 에로스 등 다섯 층위로 나누어 그 의미를 해석 한다. 이를 통해 엥프라멩스가 비결정성과 탈정체성을 특징으로 하는 그의 예술에 중요한 기반이었음을 강조한다.

This paper explores rich and complex implications of Marcel Duchamp's Mile of String which he created for “First Papers of Surrealism,” the Surrealist international exhibition in New York in 1942. Part of a larger project devoted to investigating Duchamp's role in Surrealist exhibitions and his relation to the avant-garde group, this paper focuses on Duchamp's exhibition installation in the 1942 show. Under the title of “générateur-arbitre” Duchamp played an important role as installation and exhibition designer in a series of major Surrealist exhibitions in the 1930's-1960's. The “First Papers of Surrealism” was held by Surrealists who exiled in New York during World War I, and Duchamp created a labyrinthine installation of string for the exhibition, which physically blocked the spectator and optically hindered his or her contemplative view. Unraveling the intricately related meanings of Mile of String as an independent work of art and an installation for a specific exhibition, I examine the work on two levels: frst, how the work was situated in the context of Duchamp's oeuvre, particularly his earlier work employing string or thread; second, how and in what way the installation rendered a critique on Surrealism as a group and an avant-garde movement. More specifically, by exploring the concepts of ‘pataphysics’ and voluntary ‘nomadism’ implicated in Duchamp's work, I suggest that his Mile of String asserted a critical stance against nationalism and collective identity of Surrealism and manifested a radical individualism founded upon what he called the spirit of ‘expatriation.’