Laziness & Marcel Broodthaers
In the Fall of 1975, Bruxellois editor Stéphane Rona asked Parisian art critic Otto Hahn to share his thoughts on Marcel Broodthaers, whom Hahn had known for more than ten years. The publication was +-0, a fledgling art review based in Belgium. The occasion was Broodthaers’ retrospective that opened in October at the Salomon de Rothschild Foundation, Paris, organized by the Centre National d’Art Contemporain.
Throughout the interview, which was scandalous at the time, Rona and Hahn are sarcastic, dismissive, and incredulous of the fact that a character like Broodthaers could be fêted by the CNAC, a great honor for any artist let alone a peripatetic failed Belgian poet who had only been making art for a dozen years. Piqued by the tone of this interview, Broodthaers demanded equal time. Rona obliged by conducting a followup conversation with him for the next issue of +-0. Alas, Broodthaers died three days before it came out.
This booklet marks the first time that Marcel Broodthaers’ final interview has been published in tandem with the Rona and Hahn interview that inspired it. Both are remarkable, in different ways, for addressing laziness, a moral concept that is no less relevant at a moment when great swaths of the public are, for now, choosing to work less, work the minimum contractual requirement, or not work at all.
offset ink on paper
16 pages, saddle-stitched
8.5 x 5.5 in / 21.6 x 14 cm
first edition of 250 copies
© 1975, 1976, 2012, and 2021
Stéphane Rona, Otto Hahn, Marcel Broodthaers, Jill Ramsey, Nora Kovacs, and the Broodthaers Society of America. All copyrighted material, aside from the Nora Kovacs translation, has been reprinted without permission as part of Laziness, June 21 – August 1, 2021, an exhibition organized by Joe Scanlan
PURCHASE
Throughout the interview, which was scandalous at the time, Rona and Hahn are sarcastic, dismissive, and incredulous of the fact that a character like Broodthaers could be fêted by the CNAC, a great honor for any artist let alone a peripatetic failed Belgian poet who had only been making art for a dozen years. Piqued by the tone of this interview, Broodthaers demanded equal time. Rona obliged by conducting a followup conversation with him for the next issue of +-0. Alas, Broodthaers died three days before it came out.
This booklet marks the first time that Marcel Broodthaers’ final interview has been published in tandem with the Rona and Hahn interview that inspired it. Both are remarkable, in different ways, for addressing laziness, a moral concept that is no less relevant at a moment when great swaths of the public are, for now, choosing to work less, work the minimum contractual requirement, or not work at all.
offset ink on paper
16 pages, saddle-stitched
8.5 x 5.5 in / 21.6 x 14 cm
first edition of 250 copies
© 1975, 1976, 2012, and 2021
Stéphane Rona, Otto Hahn, Marcel Broodthaers, Jill Ramsey, Nora Kovacs, and the Broodthaers Society of America. All copyrighted material, aside from the Nora Kovacs translation, has been reprinted without permission as part of Laziness, June 21 – August 1, 2021, an exhibition organized by Joe Scanlan
PURCHASE