Uses of Leisure – Book Launch and Artist Talk with Ben Cain

Instructions for Erika By Erna Klewall. Photo: Erna Klewall.

Welcome to a book launch and artist talk with Ben Cain at Mint!

The book is a loose aggregate of Ben Cain’s practice from the past ten years or so, with thirty projects distributed according to a subjective categorization of work / leisure / rest. Throughout his career Ben Cain, who lives and works in London and Zagreb, has worked with sculpture, installation, theatre, sound, performance, and publication. His practice deals with themes of work, labour, and artistic action. He has recurrently explored art’s ambiguous relationship to industry, commodification and immaterial labour, and is interested in how artworks might pose questions about what we think they are doing and, by implication, our role as viewers in the social and cultural production of such artworks.

The Stockholm launch at Mint of Uses of Leisure by Ben Cain is the first public event presented by LH (Patrick Lacey and David Price). It forms part of the opening evening for the exhibition Att ta saken i egna händer, curated by Christina Zetterlund with Mint. Uses of Leisure, published this year by Wiels, Brussels, surveys the last ten years of Cain’s practice. The artist will present the book in person, accompanied by a new display of work, a short film by Erna Klewall and an additional document by LH. The event is presented in collaboration with Iaspis, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Artists.