Franz West

“Otium” is a homage, in sound and design, to the artist’s book of the same name by Franz West, which was published in 1995 on the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair (on the suggestion of Kasper König). This unique collection of thought and text fragments, which connect, in their formal design, pictorial-compositional elements as well as song-like poetry, served as the raw material for singer and composer Oliver Augst to set this idiosyncratic piece of written work to music. An audio play was create, in collaboration with the musician Rüdiger Carl and the visual artist Heimo Zobernig, that picks up West’s visual collaging technique and develops a counterpart in sound. The publication, designed by Heimo Zobernig—which also includes a facsimile of the original text, presented in English for the first time, as well as a booklet with a text by Benedikt Ledebur alongside the vinyl record—also employs language as the fundamental form of artistic expression.