5/OCT/2022, 6pm

Location: 1024 Budapest, intersection of Margit körút and Szabó Magda sétány (at the corner of Millenáris-Széllkapu park)

47.509096, 19.027712

Leefwerk

ARTISTS ON TOUR

‘The Manifesto Of A Diary’
 

Leefwerk tours Europe with the results of their artistic practice for sale. Since neoliberal capitalist thinking determines cultural policy and thus undermines experimentation, they have thought to approach the matter of gaining fame in the artistic scene as a source of experimentation. Since becoming an artist can also be an artistic project, this project has also become an artistic project. 

They travel in a car that has been converted into a merchandising stall to sell their artistic results in a very experimental way. With this converted vehicle, Leefwerk will symbolically profile themselves as "uninvited artists," raiding the established art scene and selling their body of work as cheaply as possible.

In English

Free of charge

in case of bad weather rescheduled to 6/OCT/2022, 6pm

www.leefwerk.org

www.instagram.com/leefwerk

Füge Productions, Jurányi Art Incubator House, PLACCC Festival

Read more

The art duo Leefwerk came into existence at the initiative of Niels Coppens (BE) and Roman Luterbacher (CH). Both shared a profound interest in shaping urban space and redefining its purpose by generating action and instigating interaction. Leefwerk focuses on space as a piece of art in and of itself. By provoking curiosity, Leefwerk interventions attempt to connect people within and around a given space, in an artistic experiment with a social outcome. Leefwerk literally translates as ‘life’ and ‘work’ in Flemish. Two notions that fully conceptualise what the duo stands for: namely the blurring lines between life and work, as moving parts intertwined in space and time.

‘The Manifesto Of A Diary’ documents the results of Leefwerk’s artistic journey. As part of this publication they archive and present their first projects as a duo. Projects that were carried out in a temporary and chosen context, but also in a new and unchosen world affected by the pandemic. Their documentation is an artistic gesture closely tied to their work, it is the visual layer of their adventure and an exercise in shaping and ordering visual conclusions. This book represents the condensation of a reality. It is not an object, it is a piece of them. It explores the relationship between life and work and attempts to capture the reflections that were made in the artists' studios and their homes.
The publication is written in English and includes translations in Greek and in Dutch. This translation refers to the country in which the project was carried out.

Artists On Tour

Niels’ and Roman’s 3-year collaboration documented and compiled in a 600-page publication is launched with a tour through Europe in the form of a performative lecture. The duo converted a minivan into an art installation with the results of their artistic journey in the trunk. In this playful interpretation of what could be an out-of-control merchandising store, spectators and passersby will, in addition to the publication, also find a self-released vinyl record (LP), posters, t-shirts and caps printed with Leefwerkian punchlines.

With this project, Leefwerk addresses the zeitgeist but at the same time casts a critical eye on it. In this spaceship, reworked with the wink of the self-proclaimed salesman, they propose an absurd project and approach this notion as an experiment in itself, celebrating its existence while bringing art to life.

Their merchandise, including the book, will be sold here at free contribution. Some would see this as risky, but it is a gesture of trust towards the potential consumer. A consumer who will behave like a beast in a department store where the manufactured context aims to set up a competitive atmosphere and pit everyone against each other. In this performative context the art-duo will take their time explaining to people how everything came about and what the production costs entail, so that they can use this as a basis for their own logic and take account of their own ethics.