Robert Filliou – Idiot ici, idiot là, ample food for stupid thought, 1977

Ninety postcards fill this small box, each bearing a question. Together they form Idiot ici, idiot là, ample food for stupid thought. Questions such as “Why should you pay less when you can pay more?”, “What’s in the larder?”, “What if Lenin hadn’t lived?” and “Why not walk away?” place the everyday, the political and the absurd on the same footing. For Robert Filliou, the “idiot” was not someone who lacked intelligence, but someone who remained open to the world by resisting the certainty of ready-made answers. The postcards can be read in any order, exchanged or shared, allowing questions to circulate from one person to another.

At the core of Robert Filliou’s practice are ideas of language, play and exchange. Trained in economics and associated with Fluxus, he conceived art as a continuous, collective activity embedded in everyday life. His work challenges conventional notions of authorship, value and production, favouring openness, humour and participation. Through gestures that blur the boundaries between art and non-art, Filliou redefined creation as an ongoing process of thinking, making and sharing, an approach that continues to shape the understanding of art as a space of exchange.