The artist Bjørn Venø strives to see the world and dreams about what it could be, arguing for the importance of creating art in a way in which success is irrelevant. Venø has developed the two terms ‘Arthemist’ and ‘Arthemy’ to define his ideas about life, and art, that are at odds with our world. The book reflects on happiness and how a shift in what we value can bring humanity to a new frontier. Venø may have accidentally written a self-help book, but for those who wish to fail. Using the ‘Licensed Fool’ methodology, Venø practises and embraces failure when he creates photographs, video, drawings, music, performance art and texts, because perfection is reproducible and failure is human.
Arthemist Statment 2.6 features work by Bjørn Venø from 2006-2021. 57 images (hard cover) and 47 images (ebook).
Content warning: 3 images of male nudity.
Inhoudsopgave
DEAR READER
Why?
PART I: MEANING
Epistemology
Exploration
Passive and Active
Want and Need
Happiness and Struggle
Value and the Quantifiable
PART II: REALITY
The System
Beta and Alpha
Taker and Giver
Community and Node
Honesty
The Hero
PART III: TOOLS
Art, the Artist and Arthemy
Arthemist
Energy
The Licensed Fool
Plato’s Cave
CONCLUSION
In Reality
Over de auteur
Bjørn Venø (b 1979, living and working in Norway) is an artist who works with photography, video, performance art, writing, drawing and music. Ideas of failure, identity, gender and metaphysics are explored by using free association, intuition and attributes of the fool. https://www.bjornveno.com