Anonymous Engravings on Ecstasy Pills

The patterns used in “Anonymous Engravings on Ecstasy Pills” were designed by unknown people who abandoned them. In this book of drawings, Frédéric Post offers a piece of research worthy of a modern-times archaeologist. He collected and re-created these figures, conferring thus value to an underground iconography of over 500 signs.
The classification of the drawings into three groups (figures, typography, symbols) was carried out with Izet Sheshivari. The collection shows elements of a visual folklore that hints at popular figures. The book implicitly describes our societies’ ambiguities: “Nowadays, with drug use, we want to experiment this unconstrained pleasure, disrupt the humdrum routine, make love longer; we want to party even though we are tired (…). At the end of the day, this is in line with the whole idea of work, profitability and performance”.* Is ecstasy therefore an excessive metaphor of market economy?
*interview by Michel Masserey for Culture Club on Radio RSR La Première, 15 April 2009
With the support of the Fonds d’art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (Fmac) and Pro Helvetia, Fondation suisse pour la culture.