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
No matter how people try to intervene rationally, the abstract concept of love cannot be obtained in the same way as learning intellectual knowledge. Artists’ book, as a way of artistic expression, not only carries out ideas, but their materials and the way of reading also convey the creator’s awareness of materiality and its relationship to contents.
Artists’ book, as a way of artistic expression, not only carries out ideas, but their materials and the way of reading also convey the creator’s awareness of materiality and its relationship to contents. (inefficient) LOVE MANIFESTO includes works from seven artists who are highly aware of their use of different mediums and articles from three writers who analyze love from linguistics, architecture and sociology perspectives.
The project, not only on the intellectual level, traces back the formation of the concept of love, more importantly, prompts us to imagine how love will be 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.