Letters of non-motivation

On the day a Pizza has been used as a weapon for the first time, I found a link to Julien Prévieux‘s fabulous “letters of non-motivation“. In a very French spirit, he answers job offers with negative letters, finding reasons why he should not accept the job. Here is the project’s description from his portfolio, and a couple of examples. All letters have been compiled in a book available online here.

With this undertaking, which has been unrelentingly conducted for several years, the artist responds in the negative to job offers gathered from the press. The lack of “motivation”, reasserted on a daily basis, thus becomes a full-time job. Each missive is the pretext for a different stylistic exercise which, by its often tragi-comic dimension, stigmatises the kafkaian absurdity inherent in this type of ritual. From Bartleby to the elderly, from the paranoid applicant to the overbooked, the author plays a host of roles in order to vehemently increase the number of arguments for his refusal. The answers sent by companies are all evidence of an impossible communication whereby the entire hiring system is seen to be faulty.