AZADE
Opening reception 28/08
André Cadere
Présentation d'un travail. Utilisation d'un travail
Hossmann, MTL 1974
Essay
Softcover, 16 p.
24 × 14,5 cm
French
First ed. of 1.000 copies
Born in Warsaw of Romanian parents, André Cadere produced a body of work based on the complementary concepts of presence and absence. Between 1970 and 1978 he orchestrated a series of events, or actions, designed to question the relationship between the art object and the space within which it is exhibited and evaluated. In fact, the term “exhibition” is too formal a word to apply to Cadere’s art, as his work attempts to reveal the arbitrary distinction between such sites as the gallery wall, the street corner, or the neighborhood bar. As Cadere often appeared in these sites holding the ever-present totemlike stick (the combination of the artist’s presence and the object itself constituted the total artwork), the presence of one situation would imply the possibility of another.
In Cadere’s description of that practice, the term “work” (travail) is frequently employed. Subtitled: Text—revised and corrected by the author—of the lecture delivered on December 10, 1974, at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the U.C.L. in Leuven, Belgium, this pamphlet stands out as a manifesto. Perhaps it is with these two terms—presentation and utilization—that Cadere’s work can be put into a clear focus: as a meticulous balancing of connotative and denotative elements that preserves the work’s constant state of development.
This second-hand publication is still in very good condition.
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