Publication
New Ways of Doing Nothing

Published on the occasion of the 2014 group exhibition New Ways of Doing Nothing at Kunsthalle Wien. Devoting itself to artistic production that opposes activity, the exhibition gave an affirmative slant to forms of doing nothing or refraining – a major influence being the titular character of Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scriviner: A Story of Wall Street. The book presents the displayed works and artists, but also continues the process that led to the exhibition. Included along with a conversation between the curators is a text collage of reprints and excerpts that introduces those artists and thinkers who, in the words of Bartleby, “prefer not to.”

Featuring works by Robert Breer, Alejandro Cesarco, Étienne Chambaud, Claire Fontaine, Natalie Czech, Oskar Dawicki, Edith Dekyndt, Mathias Delplanque, Heinrich Dunst, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Marina Faust, Ryan Gander, Lasse Schmidt Hansen, Julia Hohenwarter, Karl Holmqvist, Sofia Hultén, Jirí Kovanda, Rivane Neuenschwander, Georges Perec / Bernard Queysanne, Superflex, Mario García Torres

Texts by Giorgio Agamben, Claire Fontaine, Julia Gavroche, Paul Lafargue, Vanessa Joan Müller, Cristina Ricupero, Tereza Stejskalová, Enrique Vila-Matas

Design by Anna Haas
Published by Kunsthalle Wien und Sternberg Press

21 × 29,7 cm, 143 pages
7 b/w and 39 color ill.
ISBN: 978-3-95679-233-5