Much Less than Useless

Le Je-ne-sais-quoi et le presque rien. *

Much less than Useless is an artist book by Federico Cavallini, with textual contributions by Jimmie Durham and Angelika Stepken. Published by KV Publishing.


Text
Jimmie Durham, Angelika Stephken, Kunstverein (Milano)
Editorial design
Brice Delarue (Zirkumflex)
Photographs
Filippo Boccini, Federico Cavallini, Petra Fantozzi, Jan-Peter Nuesken, Antonio Theo Pini
Publisher
Kunstverein Publishing Milano


23 × 29 cm, 128 pages, full color.
Typeface: Core sans
Paper: Favini Shiro
Printed in 500 copies, April 2017, Debatte Typography, Livorno (Italy).

Much less than Useless is a visual account in which the narrative slowly gets lost as one leafs through the pages; a voyage of images to be experienced as a visual drift along, unfinished or incomplete, works of art that are constantly mutating. In Cavallini’s words: “to arrive faster than the others at an imaginary line, that, moreover, is a human invention […] I’ve always thought of the photo finish line, in any sport, as a useless aberration.” The absence of all the usual reassuring handles of a book, such as an introduction, captions, explanations, leaves space for an organic and individual reading, where each one of us finds their own cognitive route, (re)organising information from one moment to the other, decoding the endless details contained, and possibly losing oneself on the way. Much less than Useless is a book that reconstructs a creative process and an artistic methodology that cannot directly be traced back to the final work of art.

* Le Je-ne-sais-quoi et le presque rien, Vladimir Jankélévitch, 1980

Much Less than Useless

Kunstverein Milano and Zirkumflex present an artist’s book Much less than Useless by Federico Cavallini, with textual contributions by Jimmie Durham and Angelika Stepken. Published by KV Publishing.

Booklaunch accompanied by an exhibition opening on Thursday 13 July 2017 at Zirkumflex project space from 7 pm onwards. With an intervention by the artist. The exhibition remains on view from July 13 to August 4.

With the support of: Embassy of Italy, Berlin & Istituto Italiano di Cultura