SRC003 – SIDEQUEST (ENCORE LABEL, AVOCADO IBUPROFEN AND VIRGILE FLORES)
Encore Label is an art label inspired by the contemporary meta-landscape as a complex site of loss and potential. Their aim is to interlace musical, visual and cultural components to create clusters of knowledge and aesthetics. Through its projects, Encore is building an ever-expanding, collectible, and entertaining planetary ecosystem that acts as a research platform for new modalities for art to hit us at full potential.
On May 8th, 2024, Encore unveiled their 3rd project, SIDEQUEST, a creative collaboration between Finnish artist Avocado Ibuprofen (Jaakko Pallasvuo) and graphic designer Virgile Flores. SIDEQUEST, or «Why Do All Graphic Designers Want to Be DJs?» delves into the various life cycles of work, from passions evolving into professions. It’s an inquiry into our hyper-focus on efficiency and attention, the collective aversion to wasted time, and the liberating possibilities of «side-questing».
As a term mainly used in video game context to describe «a quest given to the player that has no direct bearing on the main story/campaign of the game», outside of it, «side-questing» could refer to the hobbies, passion projects or amateur interests one can carry in time-consuming activities different from their 9-to-5 work.
THERE IS NO INTERNAL COMPASS, THERE IS NO NARRATIVE DRIVE.
The project began with the curation of Avocado’s 10-page comic pamphlet. Since 2014, Pallasvuo’s satirical character sketches, introspective monologues, and scribbly, self-effacing drawings on his Instagram account have garnered attention within the Instagram art community. SIDEQUEST explores his inner reflections on the utilitarian nature of our lives: the pressure of procrastinating work to the point of failure and the nuanced dichotomy between conforming to an existing system or embarking on a side-quest revolution. Avocado’s thought-provoking comic strips were ideally suited to capture the essence of «side-questing» and our perpetual quest for direction. Through the commissioning of a 10-frame comic, SIDEQUEST serves as a case study for examining the narrowing scope of ambition.
Serving as the comic’s soundtrack, the SIDEQUEST mixtape was crafted by Virgile Flores and David Broner. What better way to navigate our endless search than through music? Both Flores and Broner have been working as graphic designers and creative directors, navigating the thin line of the usage of time and professional exercise. Is there a new ethic of procrastination to be drawn ? Procrastination developed as a a cross-disciplinary practice taking in self- initiated projects as well as creative-based focus on structural concepts and sound design. Flores and Broner invite us to reconsider the line between professional obligation and personal fulfillment, challenging us to explore the intersections between passion and productivity.
SIDEQUEST invites contemplation on the inherent utilitarianism of our lives, prompting us to dissect our personal experiences and seek meaning. Following ENCORE’s modus operandi, SIDEQUEST is a multi-artifacts project featuring a comic strip by Avocado Ibuprofen, a b2b mixtape created by Virgile Flores and Encore, and 70 screen- printed (limited edition) T-shirts designed and produced by Encore.
I’M JUST COPYING WHAT THE OTHERS ARE DOING
Authors: Encore Label, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Virgile Flores, David Broner
Email: contact@encore.art
Web: https://www.encore.art/sources/sidequest
Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/encore-label/sidequest-core001-virgile-flores-x-david-broner
