(inefficient) LOVE MANIFESTO

CN / EN

An Introduction (click to watch)

(inefficient) LOVE MANIFESTO

Presented by Coordinator


Concept / Editor-in-Chief > Jolie ZHOU

Design > maf-works.com

Artists and Writers > Ting GUO, HONG Xuan, LUO Yueyang

JIN Qiaoer, mafmadmaf, Siming PAN, YU Sheung Bun, Jolie ZHOU, Ke ZHANG, zhangzin


265 x 215 x 78 mm

Chinese & English

Produced in Canton

120 Editions, 2023


[1] Project Introduction


(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.




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.



Contents

The Concept of Love

○ The Affective Revolution in Modern China: On Two Seminal Works on the Conceptual History of Love

○ Love Potion

○ Rainyman

○ An Analysis on My Little Airport’s Album The Tears of Sabina through the eyes of Byung-Chul Han: The Reconstruction of Love in the “Non-object” Era

Construction of Eros: The Force of Love

○ Some (un)loving Textures

○ Wanai Love Hotel

○ Stay Gold

○ Polemoscope, Key or Transparency

The Mother Tongue of Love: The Borrowed Words

○ Dialogue

○ Last Seen

○ The Origin of the Chinese Character“家”(Home; Family)

Epilogue: Why Love Manifesto is inefficient?

○ Twin Flames


Executive Team

Concept/Editor-in-Chief: Jolie Zhou

Contributing Editor: zhangzin

Design: maf-works.com

Production: Jolie Zhou, maf-works.com

Translators and Proofreaders: Emma Gao, Jolie Zhou, zhangzin

Scent Partnership: Scenadu

Coordinator

Coordinator is a creative group, co-initiated by Jolie Zhou and zhangzin. We learn how to coordinate with different individuals, and learn to create and live together.

Based on the common background of Sociology and Artistic Photography, Coordinator is concerned with micro discourses in everyday life that have yet to be widely discussed in public. We aim to provide an alternative perspective to observe the societal mechanism through project curation.


[3] Available Locations / Get A Copy

📖 Read at the following spaces/institutions

> Asian Art Archive, Hong Kong

> Thomas J. Watson Library @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

📖 🛍️ Read & get a copy here

> Bungee Space, New York


> For those outside these regions, please check out through the following button and leave your shipping address in the remark. We will try to arrange the shipment as soon as possible. Please note that international shipping takes 2-4 weeks to arrive.

💬 If you are interested in this project, or you have any inquiries regarding studying/researching this subject, please feel free to contact us directly via email: coordinator.201912@gmail.com

Images and Texts © Coordinator, 2023