With “Fountain – 1917” Saâdane Afif interrogates what lies behind the title and the date characterising the famous readymade of Marcel Duchamp, Fountain – 1917. In the summer of 2016 Afif, having worked for several years on his project The Fountain Archives*, started to collect postcards that picture a fountain and were written and sent in 1917. Depicting the quotidian of society and its public spaces, this collection of 232 documents illuminates the surrounding circumstances of Duchamp’s readymade. It offers a unique and compelling viewpoint onto a loaded historical moment, when war is still raging across Europe. This book reproduces in facsimile the complete collection of postcards assembled by Saâdane Afif. The foreword is written by the artist Tacita Dean.

Softcover | 272 pages | 232 postcards | Swiss brochure | first edition 2017 | designed by Saâdane Afif & Alexandra Bruns