On December 2nd, 2006, in Brussels, the Night of Boz was the starting date of “Around The Boz In 80 Days”, Julien Friedler’s first “Be Art” project. Be Art relies on the artist and writer’s ambition to put the human being back in the center of the art practice, through series of works “created by and for the masses, on the basis of a minimal support”.
To date, “Give Up” is the third, and last, work that Friedler initiated in the Be Art framework, following “ Around The Boz In 80 Days” and “The Celestial Tramp”. It was presented and started during the first Be Art Brainstorming, which took place in “The Boz atelier” in Brussels, on May, 5-6th, 2007. It will last 10 years.
What is it exactly ? The work is based on the donation of everyday objects by anybody. It’s all about renunciation and giving up. It is structured in 2 parts. First, we forget the donator and put the object in the light, interrogating it, unlike “Around The Boz”, in which the object (the questionnaire) disappears behind the subject (the answers). Then, in a second movement, the subject is back, in all his singularity.
The work will be thought in 4 levels :
The museum aspect (The Cabinet of Trivialities)
Imagine a collection of showcased objects visited by an alien. These objects may be precious or trivial, but aren’t in any case insignificant. They are the reflection of an era, the state of a world. Each one is paired with an identification sheet, attempting to express its very substance.
Each sheet will be structured in 4 groups :
- the category : the kind of object;
- the composition : the physical aspect of the object;
- the social insertion : the utility (function) of the object;
- the symbolic value : the metaphors related to the object.
The Totem
Every year, an object will be highlighted, chosen. It becomes the “totem” of the year, an imaginary matrix. From product, the object then becomes producer. Along the artists’ imagination, interpretations and associations who will take over it. Other (visual, literary, musical,…) works could then be created.
The Human Chain : from Waste to Subject
Like a baton passing from hand to hand in a relay race, the object becomes a witness, a source of human interactions.
Imagine an object given to someone (A). A keeps this received object and gives up another one to someone else. This someone in turn accepts this "gift" for offering something else to another person. And so on, to form the longest chain possible.
We get the name of each giving person and possibly a picture of the given object. We suggest everyone who will to join a personal work of art inspired by the object : text, photo, video, music,… This work could be offered to the Foundation Friedler.
Besides, we’ll think about a virtual chain, using emails and other electronic messages, where the particpants transmit virtual reflections of actual objects.
In this process, real or virtual, the waste object welcomes back the subject, this one who had been forgotten in the start. What closes the circle and balances the project…
The Bonfire of the Vanities
The dismissed objects, which won’t have been chosen for their own features or won’t have been totemized, will be destroyed. One will visualize performances where this annihilation will become a show. The ashes will then be placed in urns which will be designed on this purpose.
Ashes ?
So, a new “object”, which will symbolize the ultimate meaning of Give Up : a chimera struck in flight.
This first object will be also the 2007 totem.
around the boz in 80 years 
