1 / Concept
(inefficient) Love Manifesto
We
Do not use representations and behaviors to define ‘love’
Do not consume for trading emotional needs
Do not generate desires because of TV dramas
Do not need political events to provoke eros
Do not keep human genes for reproduction but make love
Do not understand ‘love’ in the field of biological evolution
(inefficient) LOVE MANIFESTO is an independent art project initiated by Coordinator from July 2021 to March 2023. Artists and scholars from different realms participated in this project to discuss the evolution of the concept of love. The artist's book as an exhibition space provides a variety of perspectives for observing and thinking about what love means in contemporary society.
Manifesto is a rejection of the existing norms. Meanwhile, it was also widely used as a publishing form by artists from the last century for manifesting new ideas. The starting point of (inefficient) LOVE MANIFESTO is to arouse the following question: Through what kind of visual cultures and codes of language does society shape our perception of love through subconsciousness?
2 / The Artist’s Book as An Exhibition Space
The abstract idea of “love,” no matter how carefully one tries to understand it, cannot be as easily comprehended as knowledge. However, the feeling of “love” can be experienced through the body. (inefficient) LOVE MANIFESTO works with seven artists, transforming their varied interpretations of “love” in different contexts into portable objects, forming an intimate art exhibition within the versatile interior space of the book.
The artist's book, through its physical form, conveys the creator's thoughts and attitudes towards various materials. This project traces the evolution of the concept of “love” not only through the sensitivity of artists working across multiple media (drawing, photography, sound, objects, scent), but also from linguistic, architectural, and sociological viewpoints provided by three writers. Most importantly, it prompts us to imagine how “love” might develop in the future.
3 / Cover Design
The cover design uses colourless debossing to create touchable text. In terms of the title design, the Chinese character “(inefficient)” (无效率) replaces the heart (心) in love (愛), responding to the fluidity of the meaning of love. Inspired by the philosopher Byung-Chul Han’s concept of Burnout Society, the idea of “(inefficient)” hints at the fact that the act of love cannot be evaluated like the economic performance in a capitalist context.
Love (爱) in modern Chinese characters contains a component of friendship (友), which is subtly different from love (愛) in traditional Chinese characters with both friendship (友) and heart (心). The concept of love was first introduced to the East by Christianity. The Bible states that there are four types of Love: Passionate Love (Eros), Love of Friends (Philia), Love of Parents for Children (Storge), and Love of Mankind (Agape). Interestingly, among these four types of love, the modern Chinese character 爱 is closer to Philia in appearance.