Optimistic Box N°1, 1968
Object, 11 x 11 x 11 cm.
©image: M HKA
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. M00006).
Other works and editions that afford an enlightening peek into a world structured by such an anarchic sense of humor are the so-called “Optimistic Boxes”, the first of which, from the fabled year 1968, contains a pavement stone: an inscription on the outside of Optimistic Box Nr. 1 (1968) reads “thank God for modern weapons”, countered by an inscription that states “we don’t throw stones at each other anymore” – yet the paving stone was effectively that year’s most popular weapon.
Optimistic Box n°2 from 1969 contains Filliou’s scathing view of modern marriage; yet another, later work, A More Curious Invention of the Gaga Yogi (1976) consists of a box containing hundreds of thumbnails inside, and sporting one lonely, hammered nail outside.
Optimistic Box N°3 "So much the better if you can't play chess" on the outside and "You won't imitate Marcel Duchamp" on the inside. Optimistic Box N° 4 and 5 is one object, it is about the overall importance of money. The object is a pink piggy bank, on the one side is written "one thing I learned since I was born" on the other side : "that I must die since I was born".
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Media
>Robert Filliou, Optimistic Box N°1 (closed), 1968
>Robert Filliou, Optimistic Box N°1 (opened), 1968
Artist
> Robert Filliou.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: Robert Filliou – Multiples. MuHKA, Antwerpen, 21 June 2003 - 21 August 2003.
> Exhibition: Meeting Points 7 – Ten Thousand Wiles and a Hundred Thousand Tricks. M HKA, Antwerpen, 25 October 2013 - 16 February 2014.
> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Visite Bornem - Gedeelde Ruimte. CC Ter Dilft, Bornem, 03 May 2014 - 25 May 2014.
> Exhibition: The collection XX: Jubilee. Who's got the Big Picture?. MuHKA, Antwerpen, 29 June 2007 - 18 November 2007.
> Exhibition: Visite. Cultureel Centrum Overijse, Overijse, 03 April 2009 - 10 September 2009.
> Exhibition: Robert Filliou – The Secret of Permanent Creation. M HKA, Antwerpen, 13 October 2016 - 22 January 2017.
> Exhibition: The Collection. M HKA, Antwerpen, 28 April 2017 - 31 December 2021.
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> Ensemble: Robert Filliou @M HKA.
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> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.
Related Items
>Robert Filliou, Optimistic Box n°4 and 5, 1968-1981.Object, paper, ceramics, 9.5 x 16.5 x 11 cm.
>Robert Filliou, Boîte optimiste n°2 - Vive Le Mariage, 1969.Object, wooden box, labels, picture, 9 x 12 x 2.5 cm.
>Robert Filliou, Optimistic Box n°3, 1969.Object, wooden box, labels, 6 x 12 x 2,9 cm.