When the weak take themselves for the strong

This work was born from the correspondence of Thomas Hirschhorn with the philosophers Alexandre and Daniel Costanzo, mainly concentrated between 2014 and 2019. While he carried out certain emblematic projects during this period (we thinks in particular of the Eternal Flame exhibition, organized at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in 2014 and at the Robert Walser Skulptur inaugurated in Bienne, Switzerland, in 2019), this correspondence offers the Swiss artist the opportunity to clarify his working methods, to sometimes review one's ambitions in the light of the achievement of a piece, and to clarify what he himself calls his "plans". We find there Thomas Hirschhorn's unique way of organizing political thought, aesthetic and social, by crossing collective plastic experiments and theoretical readings. It is always a question of art as a "fight", of the need to create works that respond to the principle of " non-satisfaction", and that of remaining "positive in the face of the hard core of the reality”. The book is introduced by a short essay by Daniel and Alexandre Costanzo who isolates, reorganizes and precisely defines theoretical terms, the aesthetic methods and strategies at work in Thomas' work Hirschhorn. It is accompanied by a rich iconographic notebook, a chronology and an index. When the weak take themselves for the strong is the second work that Thomas Hirschhorn (1957) published with Macula editions, after A Will to Do (2015), which brought together thirty-eight texts by the artist written in French between 1990 and 2015. Around the work: - Celebration review of the 20th anniversary of the work-project Musée Précaire Albinet at the Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers – From September 24, 2024