The small strokes are a four-handed drawing practice that we have been carrying out since 2010. The principle is similar to that of exquisite corpses, one and the other passing the drawing to each other until it is decreed finished. mutual agreement. For a long time, it was a work in felt, in black and white. Since 2018, we have been trying to see the possibilities of color, with brush and gouache on black paper. This practice was born out of a desire to explore at night. The small lines have become the vehicle. The first characteristic of this vehicle is its slowness. It is the obstinate, sometimes tedious repetition of the same simple gesture (drawing a line). Surprisingly, this repetition, and the almost hypnotic concentration it induces, generates the unexpected. The second characteristic of this practice is to be carried out with four hands. The dialogue is a source of harmonies, dissonances, accidents and surprises which appear on the sheet, are transformed, are resolved – or not. Thus, laying down one line after another is a way of groping our way, without (knowing) where we are going, without a preconceived itinerary. It is also a relationship to the other, constitutive of the creative process. To watch, a short report by Laurent Mabed: http://lespetitstraits.xurubila.fr/au-fil-du-temps/presse/