New
Laziness: a coda
August 24 – September 6
Closing Reception: Labor Day, 5–7pm
Broodthaers Society of America
520 West 143rd Street
New York, NY 10031
There is no art without laziness.
—Mladen Stilinović
The Broodthaers Society of America is pleased to announce a new, late summer coda to our previous exhibition on the subject of laziness. The coda is open to all artists, critics, journalists, and policy makers who didn’t manage to take any time off this summer and want to squeeze in a few languorous days before Fall begins.
The setting for the coda is comprised of five parts: a bespoke queen-sized bed installed in the gallery for a fortnight; several artworks by the late great Croatian artist Mladen Stilinović; and a risograph pamphlet of his infamous text, The Praise of Laziness [sic], published by Gato Negro Ediciones, Mexico City. A sixth part, the exhibition’s hidden track so to speak, is Stilinović’s The Artist at Work (1978), a performance piece that consisted of the artist waking up in the morning and deciding not to get out of bed.
Mladen Stilinović, The Artist at Work, 1978
In that spirit, the bed in Laziness: a coda can be reserved for up to three nights, at no cost, through the Broodthaers Society’s online MBnb portal, link below. Simply scroll to the bottom, ask Joe a question, and arrangements can be made, space permitting.
The free stay comes with bottomless coffee and tea, complimentary wine, and a comfortable private study for reading, napping, or just staring off into space. A video projector and drop-down movie screen are also available. All current covid guidelines will be followed.
We particularly encourage writers to take advantage of this opportunity to reflect on the virtues of laziness. Extraordinary events unfolding in the labor market compel us to consider—and maybe even contribute to—competing interests regarding what constitutes laziness and work today.
To quote Stilinović, “Artists in the West are not lazy and, therefore, are not artists, but rather producers of something. Their involvement with matters of no importance—such as production, promotion, the gallery system, the museum system, the competition system (who comes in first), and their preoccupation with objects—all this drives them away from laziness, from art. Just as money is but paper, a gallery is but a room.”
Mladen Stilinović, SS-UU, 2007, paper and vinyl collage on cardboard
Copies of the BSA’s latest pamphlet, Laziness & Marcel Broodthaers, will also be on hand. The publication marks the first time that Broodthaers’ fateful final interview has been published alongside with the mordant interview by two art critics that inspired it.
Requests for a free reservation can be posed here
Laziness the pamphlet can be purchased here