• Cover of Mladen Stilinović, The Praise of Laziness, Gato Negro, Mexico City, 2015, showing the title in large pale pink rounded serif type on a vivid magenta risograph-printed wrapper, with the author name mladen stilinovic below in smaller type.
  • Reverse of Mladen Stilinović, The Praise of Laziness, Gato Negro, Mexico City, 2015, showing a risograph-printed pale pink seated cat with hollow circular eyes on a magenta ground.
  • Interior spread of Mladen Stilinović, The Praise of Laziness, Gato Negro, 2015, showing pale pink sans-serif text on magenta pages reading "As an artist, I learned from both East (socialism) and West (capitalism). Of course, now when the borders and political systems have" on the left and "changed, such an experience will be no longer possible. But what I have learned from that dialogue, stays with me. My observation and knowledge of Western" on the right.
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The New Rare

Mladen Stilinović — The Praise of Laziness, Gato Negro, Mexico City, 2015

Mladen Stilinović — The Praise of Laziness, Gato Negro, Mexico City, 2015

£20.00 GBP
£20.00 GBP
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Softcover booklet, 10.5 × 8 cm, 28 pages, text in English. Good vintage condition: light handling wear and minor signs of storage.

A pocket-sized edition of Mladen Stilinović’s influential text The Praise of Laziness, published in Mexico City by Gato Negro in 2015. First written in the aftermath of the Cold War, the manifesto reflects on the artist’s position between Eastern European socialism and Western capitalism, proposing laziness not as failure but as a form of resistance to productivity, efficiency, and cultural overproduction.

One of the key figures of the former Yugoslav conceptual scene, Stilinović spent decades examining language, ideology, labour, money, and the structures that shape artistic value. The Praise of Laziness has since become one of his most widely circulated texts, frequently cited by artists, curators, and writers as a concise critique of the contemporary demand for constant activity and visibility.

Small in scale but substantial in influence, this edition belongs to the lineage of artist-led publishing that keeps conceptual texts in circulation long after their original moment. Less a book than a portable proposition, it remains one of the clearest statements of Stilinović’s practice and its enduring relevance.

A manifesto reduced to booklet form. A critique of work reproduced as an object. A text that continues to circulate because its argument remains unresolved.

Shipping and handling included in the listed price.

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