Wonderful & Liked

W&L was a visual-musical, anti-artistic collective active between the years 1990 – 1994, comprised of Hassan, Cyrul Duhe, Lietzau and various guests.

It did not have a precise agenda like other groups, but a few common traits can be identified:

  • Complete opposition to art and its canon, equally as against art institutions as amateur artists and contemporaries
  • Mocking the avant-garde genre as a means for artists to cover their lack of ideas and mediocrity
  • Mocking artistic education where ‘the chosen ones’ ‘educate’ ‘the clueless’
  • Mocking small-town culture and old fashioned consumption of art
  • Mocking the new wave of ‘anti-art’, which includes the collective mocking its own ways.
  • Unveiling buffoonery in art, practised under the guise of intellect.
  • Lack of ‘greater artistic mission’ or will to sell people on their ideas
  • Lack of contact with media and the critics as part of the agenda
  • Absolute belief in own superior genius and brilliance
  • Free will of expression and illogicality, as well as the means to justify any and all of their actions
  • Playing ‘artist’ as someone ‘special’ in society
  • Being non-artists
  • Creation and destruction as means of self-expression
  • Emphasizing their individuality inside the group: a member of the collective adhered to no internal rules or pressure
  • Resilience against fashion and artistic trends
  • Opposition to technological progress and professionalism in various areas of life
  • Opposition to universal commercialisation, including that of the avant-garde genre
  • Opposition to political systems which exploit and destroy one’s individuality as it must be surrendered to the system
  • The collective was involved in:
  • Creation of music and sound, as well as concerts in venues and outdoors
  • Events and performances with presentation of painting (in liberal use of the word), collections of sounds, artistic installations, assemblage
  • Creation of objects, annexation of material space for their own purposes, then destroying all of that as well
  • Undefined activity in and out of art galleries
  • Campaigns and performances in public places without official approval
  • Inviting others to collaborate and operate together

In 1994 the collective fell apart, destroying (nearly) all of their legacy in the process: paintings, artefacts, photos, audio & video tapes and the documentation of own actions all fell victims of burning in a fire after being deemed mistakes in history.

This page contains the materials which miraculously survived – only because they happened to be in someone else’s possession.