The preparation for the VIIth Congress of the WAP, « Semblants and Sinthome », is now well underway. The Organizing Commission, in place since last June, has already produced some good work.

First, the poster that you all can see on the net. It is and will remain on the WAP web site (www.wapol.org, heading : WAP Congress). It is a painting, entitled by it’s author, the artist Gérard Garouste, Le masque. Mr. Gérard Garouste is currently one of the best representatives of French painting in our times. This painting was discovered by the Commission at the last exhibition of the FIAC (meeting of galleries from the world over), at the Grand Palais in Paris in November of last year. The encounter with this work was truly moving, and so gained the unanimity of the Commission. Later, it was viewed yet twice again at the Templon Gallery where it was being exhibited, awaiting a buyer.

You will become better acquainted with this artist, when his schedule will allow for designated members of the Commission to interview him. This interview will appear in the publications of the ECF.

Next, the Silicet, « Semblants et sinthome »: The cover and its contents were exposed to the Council of the WAP. It will be a beautiful volume edited in French by the Collection « Rue Huysmans ». It contains 109 items, chosen to the last detail, by the Action Committee of the School One, under the direction of Éric Laurent. It will be a little over 400 pages, in choice paper, with a cover you won’t soon forget. The Commission Secretary, Anne Ganivet, actually discovered an etching of James Joyce by a Dublin artist, M. Farrel. She then went to buy it in Australia so that it could be the cover for this third volume of the WAP. The same etching will be reproduced full-page within the volume so that you can discover one of the reasons for our, and the WAP Council’s, choice of a logo for the Congress.

The Commission still has much to accomplish. The Tresurer, in particular, has taken on her task like a professional who is as brilliant as realistic and, experienced in numbers, adjusts the budget of this enormous operation day after day.

In order that we obtain from this collossal endevour the desired effect, you, yes you, dear member of the WAP, must register as soon as possible. The Commission can only continue its work according to its financial means. Therefore, in order to function, it already needs your inscription fee very quickly.

You will receive, dear member of the WAP, a registration bulletin, with all the information you require, so that you can pay by bank card from your home. Or by Swift, if that’s easier for you. We will not be able to take any payments in cash. Don’t forget to register for the closing celebration at the same time, knowing that if, one month beforehand, on the evening of Friday, April 30th, you cannot attend, we will find a way to reemburse you for it. A Congress of such scientific importance for our work community —five days of labor with the style and the discipline to which we have been formed — well merits a celebration.

The costs inherent to the organization of the celebration — the one the Commission is « semblantizing » for you, member of the WAP — are, in Europe, and especially in France, such that it is not conceivable that the registration fees of the Congress alone account for them. The Council « racked its brains », (to the point where the Director of the Congress had to receive two asprin from the very hands of the President of the WAP and the President of the Foundation of the Freudian Field !) at its meeting at the « Leutecia » last January trying to find the least costly solution. All that not without vexation but head held high, guided by the realism to which the world financial conjecture confines us, the Council concluded that it could only be possible if the members of the WAP would consent to a suppementary effort.

Yes, dear member of the WAP, you heard correctly : « Still an effort… », an effort to pay, along with your registration fee for the Congress, the iregistration fee for the celebration.

A final word. This VIIth Congress is the last Congress under Éric Laurent’s Presidency, and subidiarily, my first and last as Director…