The Agency: Readymades Belong to Everyone®

Philippe Thomas’ entrepreneurial experiment questions the distinction between authorship and ownership

French artist Philippe Thomas (1951-95) never intended to make a name for himself; rather, he was much more invested in the artist’s ability to disappear behind his work. In 1987 he created readymades belong to everyone®, a communication and events agency that mainly provided posters and signboards for different advertising campaigns. Though he was the sole creator of these artifacts, Thomas declined to sign his name on any of them so that the provenance of such pieces took priority over their initial origin–the collector or institution who commissioned or purchased the works would sign their names instead. The entrepreneurial project became a years-long experiment in testing the limitations of authorship and artistry in a post-Duchamp world. This volume provides documentation of the project, along with a final previously unpublished interview by Thomas that enables readers to understand the coherence of his entire work.