Review of the exhibition Bon Travail at Argos Center for Art and Media for Art Review

“In his 1938 book Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga argues that play is the primary formative element in culture. Associating mankind with autonomy, Huizinga seeks to establish play not only as an aspect of culture but as a defining component of it. Marx’s theory of alienated labour, meanwhile, presents the working man as deprived of the right to conceive of himself as the director of his actions, being instead defined by the system/culture he resides in. According to Marx, work replaces life as the worker provides labour to substantiate his living. Such thoughts feel pertinent to the exhibition Bon Travail, which tackles the paradigm of working to sustain a life and, at the same time, living for work….”