IT'S ALL BULLSHIT AND I APOLOGIZE
To start with I must apologize for this issue of bullshit,
it is full of bull shit.
Annie is right ,
I am getting sour,
I apologise for all the spelling mistakes,
my english is getting worse and worse every day.
I apologize for misspelling certain great names, I never remember how to write Anderson or Andersen ,
Higgens or Higgins,
if you are angry or don't agree just write.
In the next bull shit Gino will publish your answer to Ben, if not I will in my next Fluxus letter.
Introduction
This "Bullshit" issue is made up of Fluxus notes I have thrown into a box for three years. Lots of these notes were just scribblings that I can't decipher any more. Everybody is writing about Fluxus,
so I feel like writing too.
Please don't take all I have written too seriously,
I am loosing my memory and mistakes occur.
This of course can only be my own vision of things.
Midori Nishizawa from Akira Kudo corporation had the project of a big Fluxus show in 1992. What happened to the project they wrote and rewrote to Gino ? Maybe Gino is more Fluxus than I thought imagining impossible projects.
Fluxus Poland (Lublin 1992)
"Fluxus and company". I recieved five différent letters all from different organizers. How come Polland is so interested in Fluxus ?
Who did the job to give them the Fluxus virus ?
Maciunas ? Foksal ? Eric ?
Mary Anne Davis
Lost in my answered mail a nice letter dated 1989, from Mary Anne Davis. She writes about Fleiss' Fluxus evening in Paris and covers Fluxus artists with compliments.
Robert Bozzi wrote to me a long letter explaining why he is no more interested in Fluxus. I havn't got the courage to read it, so I will file it. Maybe some day someone will read it.
My fluxus files
When I get Fluxus mail, I throw it in boxes. They are now getting full, so I would enjoy finding a young pretty student who would spend ten days opening these boxes and filing each item alphabetically.
Michel Oren from the Getty art center for the history of art and the humanities (nice title), wrote to me in french.
He is preparing a book on performances
and would like some help. Sorry my mind is too confused.
Fluxus
We can in Fluxus always find somebody who did it before.
Fluxus Hungary
Art Pool in Budapest are doing a great job, they have got the Fluxus feeling. But on the phone they sound like bureaucrats.
Have you caught Maciunasite
Everybody is writing his or her souvenirs on how they met or did not meet or agree or disagree with Maciunas ( Emmett Williams, Al Hansen, Dick etc etc)
Was Beuys Fluxus ?
Just because he used the Fluxus to stamp all his old shit with.
| Name June Paik | 5 |
| Joseph Beuys | 6 |
| Ben | 6 |
| Robert Watts | 3 |
| Dick Higgins | |
| Henry Flynt | |
| George Brecht | |
| Milan Knizak | |
| E. Williams | |
| Allison Knowles | |
| Eric Anderssen | |
| Philippe Corner | |
| George Maciunas | |
| Jakson Mac Law |
The truth about Cage's scores is that :
Listening to them is boring,
reading them is boring,
performing them is boring ,
undestanding them is funny,
indeterminate music is interesting only if you know how it was composed.
Hi Red center of Japan
was just copying not inventing.
Hi Red center was also too symbolic, too theatrical,
closer to happening than Fluxus.
Fluxus importance
Is fluxus giving a lot of importance to non importance ? Is fluxus giving no importance to importance ?
Walker symposium and Fluxus
Lots of dates,
lots of names,
lots of history making .
Jonas Mekas is planning a Fluxus film anthology and would like top use my 1963 films. I have a terrific mess in my film room,
all my reels are mixed up
and I am too confused to straighten them all out.
I would need some help, but on the other hand I don't like history.
Mail from Kate Millet after my last Fluxus letter
Dear Ben,
I was happily reading your newsletter from the Hague Museum when I came across this item about myself : "I wonder why Kate Millett is on my fluxus mailing list". I'm glad to be on your list, please keep me there.
I hope that the reason I'm on your list is that I am a member of Fluxus from George Maciunas' time, having collaborated with him on ideas for mass produced fantasy furniture sculpture, and smaller pieces on plates we called "food for thought," many of which he photographed. I also took part with other fluxus members in the Fluxus exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. But the item in your newsletter was a question to yourself -"I wonder why Kate Millett is on my Fluxus mailing list"- and I would like to take this chance to affirm my connection with Fluxus, then and now, back in George's time and in the future too. Fluxus has always been very important to me, the heritage of dada and Duchamp and Cage, the outside track. Fluxus was where I stood, as it were: it gave me direction as a young artist and preserved my sense of humor when I "grew up". I love its abundance of "attitude", its irreverence, its small scale of pretension, its glorious self importance.
I have enjoyed the Fluxus spirit in your work for years now and would like to take this occasion to thank you for what you have produced.
Kate Millett
Ken Friedman
sent out a text entitled Fluxus an co 1989, it should figure in the eternally coming book "what is Fluxus?" .Here is someone who says he knows what Fluxus is all about, I can close my eyes and
see Ken reading it to a university audience
reading other people nonsense reminds me of all the nonsenses I myself wrote and still write.
Fluxus artists like playing "Fluxus wisdom"
They keep coming out with sentences that are supposed to carry profound wisdom exemple Filliou when he says : "on verra bien" ,
or Ben when he says art is always the same thing.
Some Fluxus scores
claping piece (instructions)
When a piece is finished, if the public starts claping the orchestra will clap with them, but turn slowly there claping into a beat rythm, when the public will notice this they might stop claping. But the orchestra will continue for one minute or less if at the end the public pleased starts clapping again, the flux orchestra can redo the piece. It can thus be turned into an "as long as it lasts piece".
Piano Piece for Chiari
(Right hand wants to play something, his left hand disagrees ; both hands fight to play or not to play). They finish up by slapping each other.
Piano piece for Ben
I come to the piano, start playing "Stranger in the night" , ten beautiful women crowed round the piano to look at me.
Piano piece for Harlequin
Sit at the piano, announce that everybody gets free a 10 dollar bill that all they have to do is to come up to the piano and get it.
Piano piece for Eric
Sit at the grand piano, open your fly when girl gets under the piano, start playing.
Grand piano, two executants arrive with a big sheet they pull over the piano, then both executants crawl under the piano,
then they can either stay curtain goes down
or undress and through clothes out from under the piano into the audience.
Philip Corner " plays anybody's piece and says it is by Philip Corner "
Morning Glory by Ayo
Come on stage with a glass of water take out of your pocket a tooth brush and tooth paste, then brush your teeth.
Bolzano : Conz told me that Pietro, the Bolzano director, was a formule 1 car driver ; that's why he loves Fluxus.
Francesco's collection is made 60 percent of left -overs. But in France we say the best food you eat is yesterday's remains recooked.
Copenhagen performances
Ayo built a box and hid behind it passing to the public small objects through a small hole everybody was laughing. 8/10
Fluxus Malmo 1991
They did a nice evening playing Fluxus pieces as a restaurant meal with entrées, plat de resistance, and desserts. People could order on the menu the piece they wanted to be played at their table, it worked fine and gave Petterson the idea to do it again in 1963. But I believe it was more a Knud Petterson performance than Fluxus, Maciunas would maybe not have appreciated the transforming Fluxus artists into waiters. Yet Knud Pederson reminds me in many ways of Maciunas ; he has his dictatorial capacities.
Fluxus
If in politics everything is lies
why not in Fluxus ?
If Fluxus was a tree where are its roots ?
Cage ? Duchamp ? Zen ? Malewitch ?
(dessin)
| Harlequin | 3 |
|---|---|
| Block | 5 |
| Emily Harvey | 5 |
| Shupenhauer | 2 |
| Conz | 6 |
| Di Maggio | 8 |
| John Hendriks | 7 |
| Silverman | 7 |
| Hundertmark | 3 |
| Krinzinger | 2 |
| Donguy | 3 |
Fluxus Séoul 1993
Takako Saito wrote to Seoul
Dear Kim,
I am sorry, but I cannot participate in Fluxus Festival in Seoul. You are asking us too much. I prefer concentrating on my work for the next show in Milano. If you have a small budget, why don't you cut down your plan without trying to do everything at once ? ..............
.......enjoy your Flux Fest, sincerely Takako
Culture and Fluxus
Culture is just another way of remembering who we are. Culture contains another way of telling the other : you are not me. Fluxus could change that.
I enjoyed a poster I bought in Minneapolis
"same shit different year"
Minneapolis
The rich live in nice houses around lakes.
Do the rich like Fluxus ? Or do they make as if ?
Intermedia Madrid
Twenty letters and at last the last and the best one :
"unfortunately we have to cancel the tentative
for intermedia" .
Larry Miller
Discourse : "on all and everything" ,
performance by Larry Miller.
Nice title I wonder what he did : everything, anything or nothing ? Larry is very calm but keeps on doing lots of things.
Mail from Ken
Trying to get us work for him.
Every Man His Own Fluxus by Ken Friedman
After 30 years, everyone seems to have his own idea about Fluxus. I would like to know your ideas about Fluxus.
Please share your ideas about Fluxus with me
and tell me what you think an ideal Fluxwork might
be. I will send you a work in exchange.
Please write me a letter with your ideas about Fluxus.
What do you think Fluxus is? What do you think
Fluxus has done during the last 30 years? What do you think a perfect Fluxus work would be?
In your letter, tell me something about yourself and
include a photograph of yourself. Who are you? Who
do you do? What do you in interesting? Remember
to send me a photograph of yourself. If you can write
in English, it will be helpful.
ln exchange for your ideas, I will send you an original work of art. This will be a unique work that I create in response to your letter. The work is a gift, but I must ask you to pay the cost of shipping. If you want a work on paper, please send DM I 20. lf you would like an object, please send DM I 50. I look forward to hearing from you.
Ken Friedman Box 7071 Homansbyen
N-0306 Oslo Norwegen
Best mail art I get comes from
Richard C.
He sends post cards full of strong ideas, unperceptable details. Sometimes he reminds me of Ray Jhonson, sometimes George Brecht. Writes to him, Richard C29 Gloria avenue Winston Salem NC USA.
Fluxus and Mogadiscio
Lately I have been much more disturbed by what's happening in Mogadiscio than by Fluxus.
What next
What comes next after Fluxus,
where can we go if Fluxus is life
death comes next
Forward
Annie read this issue of Bullshit
and said "Ben you look as if you had lost faith,
all you talk about is money and ego,
say nasty things about everybody,
why don't you try now and then to be positive ?
Fluxus is friends, Fluxus is fun,
Fluxus is full of jokes etc
Dick, Allison, Eric, Philip are fantastic people. Every time you came back from a journey, you told me fantastic stories about them.
Each Fluxus show has its forgotten Fluxus artists
Once its Mieko,
Once its Sharits,
Once its Vostell
Once its Takako
Once its Ben
Fluxus n'est pas
Comme nous sommes mille à ne pas savoir de quoi est fait Fluxus, voici ce qui d'après moi n'est pas Fluxus :
Fluxus n'est pas du professionnalisme,
FLuxus n'est pas dans la production de produits d'art, Fluxus ce n'est pas des femmes à poil,
Fluxus n'est pas du pop art,
Fluxus n'est pas du théâtre intellectuel d'avant garde ou de boulevard, Fluxus n'est pas l'expressionnisme allemand,
Fluxus n'est pas de la poésie visuelle pour sténo-dactylos qui s'ennuient.
Mais alors que contient Fluxus ?
Fluxus contient parfois "l'event" de Georges Brecht : mettre un vase de fleurs sur le piano. Fluxus contient parfois l'action vie/musique : faire venir un professionnel du tango pour danser sur scène.
Fluxus cherche parfois à établir une relation entre la vie et l'art, Fluxus contient parfois le gag, le divertissement et le choc, Fluxus contient parfois une attitude envers l'art, le non art, l'anti art, le refus de l'ego, Fluxus contient parfois une grande part de l'enseignement de John Cage, du Dada, du Zen. Fluxus est parfois léger et contient de l'humour.
Qu'est-ce qu'un concert Fluxus classique ? Un concert Fluxus de Maciunas est le résultat de la réflexion théorique de Maciunas qui, cherchant à éviter l'emprise de la connaissance et de la culture (impérialisme culturel) et de l'ennui dans un spectacle d'avant garde, a imaginé l'ossature d'une suite de 2O à 3O petites pièces qui ne durent pas plus d'une ou deux minutes chacune, au rythme rapide, net, clair, et qui évitent toujours la fiction, l'esthétisme et la théâtralité c'est-à-dire la comédie, selon lui inutile. Donc, bien qu'ils soient des spectacles créatifs possédant des ingrédients Fluxus, un spectacle "action et vie" de Vostell, un spectacle Art Total de Ben, un spectacle de poésie visuelle d'Higgins, un concert répétitif de la Monte Young etc, ne peuvent être confondus avec le concert Fluxus classique.
Fluxus does not exist
Fluxus is manipulated by the CIA :
reality is eating , sleeping, fucking.
Not Fluxus.
Gibertie
What happened to Gibertie snow ball project ?
Did it melt in the sun of Fluxus ego ?
Ryosuke Cohen from Osaka
proposes a decentralised world wide net worker congress. Isn't there a contradiction between decentralisation and world wideness ?
An auto-biography of the moon
by the trio Dick Higgins, Seng ts'an and George Brecht First time I read it, I thought
much too clever,
much too wise for me.
Second time I read it I thought
much too hypocritical,
too hermetic for me.
Third time I read it I thought :
looks very much like some of those stupid sentences I write on my own paintings.
Fluxus and pluri-culturalism
If Fluxus is open to life,
that means Fluxus is open to diversity,
because life contains diversity.
But if Fluxus is open to diversity
then it is open to all cultures.
I can thus imagine an eskimo coming to Fluxus with eskimo Fluxus, a German with German Fluxus, etc etc.
Now, my question is : "diversity contains difference, is there a common denominator that joins all the Fluxus of all these cultures together,
and if this common denominator exists, isn't it the premices of a new imperialism ?
Fluxus and ego
Fluxus never announced officially it wanted to destroy or change ego but to realise Fluxus's aims, ego had to be changed
and that turned out to be impossible
so we can assume Fluxus failed.
Fluxus is making history
or is it history that makes history ?
Ben Vautier went to the toilets
three times yesterday, is that Fluxus history ?
If, as John Cage said,
something is always happening,
then history is always happening.
Beethoven or drip music,
both are history,
if everything is history we don't need history any more.
Fluxus and art
Is Fluxus supposed to change art ?
Or leave it as it is,
or make art look useless,
or not care a dam about art ?
Fluxus in Dunkerque
Amongst the three hundred Museum curators who are interested in showing Fluxus is Mister Lagouche
who lives in Dunkerque.
He is trying to put together a Fluxus show in Dunkerque Museum.
Beer and peaches by Gene B. Berry
Eager for glory,
I like his humour 7/10,
his ideas of paintings are great too
here is one : "Watch clouds change"
Cage died
And since he has died his music is being played, and there is nothing more boring than a Cage concert played without humour by musicians reading scores as if they were constipated.
Encore du bla bla bla de bla bla sur Fluxus par Ben en français Fluxus, comme ce fut le cas pour Dada, devient ce qu'il ne voulait pas être : des produits, de l'importance, de la gloire,
et très bientôt un star système.
On verra Fluxus manipulé à des fins nationales,
Fluxus Allemagne contre Fluxus U.S.A.
Divers visions de Fluxus
Il y a la vision René Block
avec, pour épicentre, Beuys, Vostell, Wiesbaden
une erreur, parce qu'ils ne sont pas Fluxus.
Il y a la vision Silverman de Fluxus avec pour épicentre Maciunas. Jean Hubert Martin va jouer la carte Villefranche de Fluxus avec Filliou. Il y a la vision de Gino di Maggio, concentrée autour d'individus qui possédaient un art d'attitude.
Fluxus est un art d'attitude, qui contient un
détachement de la part de l'artiste envers l'art.
Ben Vautier you have turned sour bitter and dry, why ?
Fluxus is a joke
but when I think of art and its supposed importance I don't feel like joking .
Fluxus versus art
Fluxus could after all be more important than it looks like, for that we would have to assume art is less important than it looks like,
or that art is less positive than we believe.
Fluxus
could be art turning true,
or art getting "on" itself,
or art trying auto-criticism,
or art going "bust".
H .Flynt
the most radical statement in Fluxus is
"destroy serious culture "(H. Flynt ),
but what Flynt meant by that is another question.
Fluxus est en train de se contredire dans la mesure où ce sont des râtés en train de réussir et qui ont la gloire grâce à leur discours anti-gloire.
Il y a même une tendance Zen Gloire dans Fluxus :
avoir la gloire pour avoir été le premier à proposer une vie ordinaire. Fluxus se mange la queue.
Si Fluxus était une barrique, il serait plein d'egos.
Si Fluxus était une fleur, j'aurais aimé qu'il soit une ortie mais je crois qu'en réalité c'est un bouquet de petits bourgeois qui aimeraient se faire passer pour des orties.
Si Fluxus était une voiture ce serait une Mazeratti déguisée en 2 CV ou pour certains une 2 CV déguisée en Mazeratti.
Fluxus voulait changer l'art .
Aujourd'hui Fluxus reconnait qu'il n'a rien changé . Il a tout au plus posé une question. Fluxus a échoué à cause de la nature humaine. L'ensemble des artistes Fluxus est aussi égoïste que l'ensemble des artistes faisant de l'abstraction sur la place du Tertre.
Giuseppe Chiari
Giuseppe Chiari's left hand fights his right hand concerto, is maybe in Chiari's Fluxus fighting Chopin.
Alen Kaprow 1992
Chez Gino comme chez Donguy, Kaprow montre à nouveau ses vieilles installations. Pourquoi ?
Parce qu'il n'a rien d'autre à montrer
ou parce qu'il est resté honnête et trouve cela idiot de se répéter.
Why are people interested in Fluxus ?
answers :
Because of our great intelligence ? no
because we are creators ? no
because we are creative musicians ? no
because we are radical ? no
because we represent newness ? no
because they can make money with us ? yes
Flynts theory is too complicated to get straight,
yet he jungles with some very interesting extremes,
one of which is "destroy humanity " .
Ben's theory is that Fluxus is a rupture, not a variation that is to say something really new. A new way of looking ay art.
Beuys' theory is everybody is an artist and direct democracy. Ben believes that Beuy's theory is 90% demagogy, that is to say hypocrisy. M aciunas' theory is that art must return to its initial function : divertissement ,and also be popular not elitic .
Ben believe that Maciunas is 60% right in wanting art to change and become funny, but wrong when he supposes it can turn anti elitic.
Philip Corner's theory is reality. Don't disturb reality, just point to it. Dick Higgins theory is intermedia that is to say nothing ( I am anti intermedia). Eric's theory is "how can I find a theory to be important ? "
My Fluxus night thoughts
how can I stop going round ?
am I getting old ?
do I look older than Paik ?
Kaprow
is an artist who always gives a staight opinion.
Kaprow likes Fluxus
mostly George Brechts'work.
Dick Higgins is a pseudo intellectual visual poet gone astray into Fluxus.
Harlequin is a funny fellow asks more than he gives, wants free edition etc., etc
Bolzano
In the streets everybody speaks German and Italian but on certain street corners singers sing in German and on one pavement and on the opposite pavement in Italian.
Bolzano good Fluxus press conference, everybody listening to himself.
Philip Corner is turning ethnical,
that is to say he is getting less cosmopolitan and more ethnical, interested in world sounds. He is longing to bring up some good jewish Fluxus.
Fluxus collectors
are like gold miners who go around the world looking for gold, suddenly they fall on a Fluxus artist and start looking at him as a gold streak.
Special secret report
From USA central Fluxus mining company to Italian and German Fluxus mining companies : To get maximum financial results out of Fluxus,
it is important we give Fluxus historical maturity for that it is important we make a legend out of Fluxus. Please note also that
Fluxus dead artists are easier to manipulate : they can't contradicte us.
Willem de Ridder
His attitude is that of a cold fish with snoopy Italian eyes and a squaky smile to look at naked girls. I love his walkman pieces. I suppose Eric Anderssen is jealous of them.
Enrico Pedrini
I wonder who takes him seriously.
He dreams of himself as the cardinal Richelieu or Mazarin of modern art in Italy. To his credit we can say he loves art theory and is always asking himself why this, why that.
Robert Bozzi and Erebo
Were Fluxus creators in Nice in the years 1963 to 1965. They stopped doing Fluxus after 1965. I think Erebo's work was great and that he deserves a special book with all his crazy scores. Robert Bozzi was less creative, yet Maciunas liked his ideas and pinched from him the Fluxus mass idea.
About the "Fluxus Virus"show in Munich
Everybody says that Cornelia has more tact than Christel at talking to artists and that everybody got their money without having to beg for it like in Köln.
Fluxus is opening today
open ing to bad theater,
opening to stupid symbolism,
opening to romantic idealism,
instead of accepting , opening to a beer,
to breakfast ...
Al Hansen and Philip Corner are in Fluxus to survive, they are professional artists doing their job.
Who is Mats'B
He has a name out of Alice in Wonderland.
I remember meeting him and having a great conversation with him. He curated a show called "Fluxus the development of an antidote" at the gallery Stentsrom in Stockholm. His catalogue like 90% of the Fluxus catalogues today is made of reliques, paper, leaflets, souvenirs, he wants to reavaluate and
so turn his collection of junks into money and glory.
Who did influence Maciunas ?
Mat's B like Jackson Mac Law has his theory on who influenced Maciunas. For Mat's B "Maciunas" was inspired by "Blandaren", a lithuanien magazine; he believes too that Maciunas was more concerned in creating a new version of soviet music, than European divertissement music as Fluxus turned out to be.
Yoko Ono history of Fluxus is that Fluxus started in 1948 in Japan where she did certain things that afterwards everybody started copying. She must be a very old lady.
Fluxus score book
A simple an easy to do Fluxus score book is very necessary, Jean Dupuy and Halbert phoned to me as to what they could play at Nantes for a small Fluxus concert, if they had the book they would not have had to phone. In fact Ken Friedman wants to do the book too,
so he has been asking me for three years
to send him all the scores I have collected.
Fluxus mail
A huge pile of old and new Fluxus mail on my desk since three years I have not answered Fluxus mail I just let it pile it in a box labelled Fluxus.
Today I have decided to go through it.
Bound and unbound copyright Barbara Moore all rigts reserved The idea behind the text is to get money with Fluxus archives and Fluxus remakes. Why not ? If it was not for money, lots of people would be interested in Fluxus.
Maciunas
It's quite funny before we had Maciunas' lists, now we have lists about Maciunas' list, soon someone will propose for sale the list containing the list containing Maciunas' list.
Jackson Mac Law
wrote a long text entitled "How Maciunas met the New York avant garde and eventually invented what came to be called "the Fluxus movement ".
copyright 1980 by Jackson Mac Law all rights resereved "It is a very interesting article relating in detail how they all met and who did what , but if I ask myself why did Mac Law write it, I can't help thinking, because he was jealous of Maciunas' success and the text is there just to say - if it was not for me Jackson Mac Law and La Monte Young, Maciunas would have not existed, I have dates and facts to prove it - poor Jackson Mac Law how he must suffer to see that his boring visual poetry got less success than Maciunas' stupid jokes.
Dick Higgins loves writing letters
I can visualise art students in 2023 consulting volume 13 out of the twenty volumes of Dick Higgins partial correspondence.
Something is wrong in the world of art
Lure 2215 market street
proposes to Emily Harvey for 250 $ a record by Ben,
for 800 dollars three small enveloppes containing some of my stupid ideas, how come ?
Nicolas Tsoutas of the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane sent me a letter thanking for all I did for them only mystery I never did anything for them might be is another Ben.
A leaflet for a lecture by Henry Flynt from the Centre Georges Pompidou (the kind of place all artists dream of )
Flynt I met at the time in New York was very disturbed at the idea of going or not going to Paris for this show .He kept talking about it.
Flynt's ego spends a lot of time trying to prove that he, Henry Flynt and not art and language or
Kosuth, was the real inventor of conceptual art. I would say concieted ego art. Sometimes Flynt reminds me of some of those lettriste artists who spend the time crying " I did it before you ".
About my show at Emily in 1991
John Hendriks wrote to me that he liked my show at Emily's very much and was sorry posters coundn't have been made regarding U.S. war crimes.
Philip Corner
I recieved from Philip Corner the following statement. I consider as one of the best I have read since a long time :
after Duchamp you can still do whatever you want
after John Cage you can still do whatever you want
after Michelangelo you can still do whatever you want
after Ben you can still do whatever you want
after Philip Corner you can still do whatever you want
after Beethoven you can still do whatever you want
after Buddha you can still do whatever you want
after Abraham you can still do whatever you want
after Moses you can still do whatever you want
after Jesus you can still do whatever you want
after Picasso you can still do whatever you want
after Bach you can still do whatever you want
after Mahomet you can still do whatever you want
after Boulez you can still do whatever you want
after Gaudi you can still do whatever you want
Philip Corner 1990
Flux etc by Mister Luce
Is Fluxus for children ?
Is Fluxus a joke ?
Is Fluxus a passion ?
Who is Fluxus Luce ?
Another mail art gangster trying to get free documents, or a sincere young boy wanting to communicate, lets give him a chance
here is his adressierens :
Boterstraat 43 2811 Hombeek Belgique
Robert Pincus, the great art critic has a name that belongs to a Marx Brothers' production. He should call himself Fluxus Fincus and organise a Fluxus International show in the latrines of ten big USA Museums.
Fluxus Poland 1992 Festival
I did not go, Eric, Anna Noel and Emett went a few Japanese artists performed. I am curious, I wonder how the performance looked like.
Jeff Berner
participated in 1964 in one Fluxus Festival in Prague and it all went to his head ; since then he keeps on showing and selling Fluxus reliques from Prague. He calls his trip aktual art.
I should be a bit angry with him because in Prague the concert in which we did for the hundreth time Paik's braking of the violin.
Berner picked up what was remaining of the broken violin and sold it .
Eric Andersan's theory on intermedia he developped in Minneapolis. Is it is pure jealousy for not being in the first Fluxus concerts ? Eric gave a super anti-Maciunas talk at the Walker Museum. He said Maciunas was only a grafist, not a creator.
Larry Miller
I like his Fluxus clock that goes backwards.
He wrote to me to propose something for the Maciunas labyrinth at the Walker. I did not answer but I would have loved a dark tunnel in which a girl is sitting nacked. I liked his poster with the eight dogs on the grand piano.
Dick Higgins
Dick has something of an aristocrate he holds himself straight in a very dignified way. He has a nice voice and likes talking
some of his 10,001 symphonies look very much like Knizaks' shooting at books pieces.
Art critic's make even false history
one art critic wrote :
"Many (Fluxus) events are brief .In the use of time and staging, they resemble vaudeville and burlesque . Emmett Williams "On-Off event" is a classic of this genre. The piece is simple. All the lights in a theatre are turned off, on, off and on again. The piece can be done at any time during a concert, but it is often used at the start or end. It resembles the flicking lights used to signal the beginning of a theatre piece or to summon the audience back from the intermission. When it is used this way, it erases the boundaries between art and life . The piece uses the gentle confusion between theatrical ar~nd theatre life to establish a play of complex dialectical subtleties. "
That piece is not Emmett's but George Brecht's.
Jiri Valoch
Is a para-Fluxus artist. He has the Fluxus spirit. Ten years ago I sent him a whole bunch of ideas on papers,
never heard of him since.
Here is his adress :
Jougoslaska 46 a
61300 Brno Tchecoslovakia
Gallery 360 in Tokyo
I get their invitation cards. They show Fluxus. They show Bernar Venet. They show Conceptual art. I will send them an old pair of shoes.
Here is their adress :
Gallery 3602-
3-jingumae shibuya-ku
Tokyo Japan
Hannah Higgins
She has a super creative spirit. Her talk at the Walker was one of the best simple and clear. Hannah is a beautiful girl, should be smiling to Robert Redford or Woody Allen instead of wasting it on stupid Fluxus old hat artists.
Isn't her husband jealous of all these men who keep looking at her as if they were just about to faint.
Alain Gibertie sent me this text a year ago it looks as if he is a bit sour not to be in the bunch :
Fluxus est aujourd'hui totalement sclérosé par les ancêtres de la première heure, leurs marchands et collectionneurs avides de faire monter les prix (un cheval pas cher est rare...) en refusant à la nouvelle vague d'artistes qui étaient trop jeunes ou pas nés à la douteuse date de la création aux Etats-Unis, le droit d'avoir découvert, d'eux-mêmes ou dans la rue ce mouvement, la reconnaissance artistique à laquelle ils ont pourtant légitimement droit. Mais à Paris comme ailleurs, le marché de l'art situe FLUXUS entre les années 60 et 71. Ainsi, aprés 71, les statements essentiels et qui d'évidence pour tout un chacun sont éternels - Tout est art - La Vie est Art.- s'éteignent, frileusement protégés par les marchands et tous les artistes de l'arte povera qui se remplissent les poches maintenant. Preuve est faite que les artistes de cette époque, n'étaient peut-être pas des tricheurs à l'origine, mais qu'actuellement ils vont tous bêler, par exemple devant Di Maggio, quand il construit à Milan un musée Fluxus contre l'idée duquel ils ont toujours été. Preuve encore est faite que ces artistes sont à l'authenticité ce que le yaourt bulgare est à l'énergie nucléaire. lls ont triché, et ce qui est pire, ils ont menti et se sont trichés eux-même. FLUXUS est devenu aujourd'hui une sorte d'hospice, une espèce de ghetto pour vieillards séniles qui se retrouvent de temps en temps dans des musées, se racontant des "tu te souviens" qui réjouissent les "fonctionnants" mercantiles du marché, ébahis de savoir tu parles..qu'ils ont pissé dans la mer ou contre un mur, qu'en ce temps là, on pouvait faire l'amour sur une scène ou sous un porche. Le seul mouvement que j'ai cru authentique s'éteint comme les autres, étiqueté par ceux-la mêmes qui avaient presque réussi à déchirer toutes ces petites saloperies de papiers que l'on colle de plus en plus sur le front de l'être humain pour le faire bêler plus fort devant les lois de la morale et d'une humanité asseptisée qui va bientôt nous inventer des pillules pour ne plus chier, comme si la merde n'était pas le meilleur engrais. Ouais, franchement, maintenant, L'ART M'EMMERDE, moi aussi MEME, et VIVE FLUXUS ...
ALAIN GIBERTIE
Emmett Williams has had the heavy responsabilty of having been in Wiesbaden in 1962 just another way of telling others : "I am History you are not . Means you can be a good or a bad Fluxus poet but you cannot be history, I call that playing, " I am history you are not ".
History about Fluxus scores
how we played them to,
how we say we played them,
and to how they think we said we played them.
Vostell at The Walker Museum
Even when he is absent Vostell's comedy accompanies him, his piece came with a special crate accompanied by a special curator, you could this have expected something fantastic instead the piece was only an old TV set with a stupid decor around it.
Vostell's statement in the Walker's catalogue
Vostell brought life into art,
got me angry Vostell never brought life into art
Cage brought life.
Vostell brought fat heavy useless expressionist ego.
Bolzano Fluxus
Henry Martin asked all the artists for an edition,
as he did not get mine after some weeks, I wrote for it. Henry said I took it with me when I was there, which I did not so, I was very angry and I had to write ten letters before I got my edition given to me. I wonder if the Bolzano show was not just another museum trap.
I should stop writing about Fluxus
Fluxus artists have nothing left to say
except "I did this before you ",
and I feel stupid and ashamed every time I say it
Minneapolis
Allison is looking fine and calm,
a great old lady trying to sell her works.
Minneapolis
Pattersen sent a fax announcing Joe Jones' death.
Death that did not seem to surprise anybody
looks as if everybody was expecting it.
Why?
Who is Michael Berger ?
Allison thinks Berger is a great man
kind, gentle, altruist,
I don't , such people as she describes don't exist in the art world. I think he is just like all the others,
after good business,
some think that
Berger spends a lot of money on Fluxus.
By the way,
did he sell or not sell all the Fluxus objects he built for the Wiesbaden and Copenhagen 1993 Flux Festival shop ?
On Berger's enveloppe one can read this statement:
Fluxus is not a moment in history or an art movement Fluxus is a way of doing things a tradition, a way of life and death (signed Knowles/Higgins)
Just another one of these pompous Higgins' sentences that don't mean anything, you can like it or not. Fluxus is a moment in history, Fluxus is an art movement. Fluxus is a way of doing things, is not a tradition, is as everything else in the world a way of life and death.
Fluxus concert " Magasine events" printed in Oslo, I recieved and looked through it ,clever layout. Maybe too clever looks boring but might not be boring. Only text in English "Fluxus as music" by Peter Frank, enjoyed relooking at and reprint of Paik's
fantastic post music and Belgrade's text by Ken Friedman. Ken is far too sophisticated for me, I am sure he could be simplier.
Minneapolis symposium
At the Walker Museum a very cordial and non contracted talk by Clive Phillpot another crazy name :"Philpot" !
He told us very simply how he organised in the library of the Museum of Modern Art of New York a Flux documentation Show. Just simply
I was flattered because he mentioned me twice.
Minneapolis
The big news is that Schupenhauer was around paying cash the artists the 2,000 DM she owed them.
I can't help thinking she would never have payed anybody if I had not made a fuss about it. Let's see if she pays everybody Takako, Al Hansen ...etc
Minneapolis
I regret not having gone to visit the Indians and their casinos. Good idea they got to build casinos instead of craftman souvenir shops !
Jill Jhonston is looking fine straight eyes ,no concessions. She still remembers the Cros de Cagnes and my mother in law.
Jeff Berner is back on the stage.
He sold his collection to the Walker, giving importance to a Fluxus concert in Prague in 1964 which had no importance. Jeff Berner blows up his importance, but every body does that and nobody understands that nobody is important because human.
Minneapolis
Listening to the super intelectual lectures,
I found out that Emmett Williams, Maciunas and
Ben Patterson were all three working for the US army in 1962. Robert Filliou worked for the army
to join Korea.
Maybe they were being manipulated to infiltrate European culture. One day some one will come up with a story about Fluxus working for the C.I.A.
Ken Friedman
Fluxus artists are coward in Copenhagen, because of Eric's and Knud Petterson they don't dare speak to Ken Friedman, it is just as if he was contagious. On the other hand, in Minneapolis, Ken was respected. Lots of people then consider Ken Friedman as having done a lot for Fluxus .
Guess
Who said "Fluxus is 90 percent romantic garbage "?
Answer : Henry Flynt .
Guess who believes he is 70% right ?
Answer : Ben.
Henry Martin
I wonder if he will sew me if I say he is a gangster.
Minneapolis's catalogue looks good
but I don't like recent Fluxus catalogues : too stuffy, too historical, too much desinformation and manipulation.
Making us look as if we were important.
Ken says that Paik believes Knizak
is a great artist .
I believe Knizak is one of the worst fluxus artists,
he is a symbolist, an expressionist and an arrivist ,
but has a nice smile, an obediant wife, and an expensive car. And best of all, lots of humour.
Hundertmarkt
hates paying what he owes,
always begging for an edition,
never giving a cent .
Jean Dupuy
Jean Dupuy is always looking for something in particular : in Bolzano, he needed stamps with Caruso's portrait on them.
Ben Patterson played fool in Bolzano the edition was finished and we all could have got one and taken it home with us,
but Patterson played maniac, his part of the edition had a small scratch, so he wanted it to be redone.
George Brecht
Brecht is never anywhere and he is everywhere.
We are quite a few to believe that Brecht is the best, but we don't know why. I know : because he invented "event"
Mystery
Why did Ken write to everybody that we should fight the rumour that Knizak was a Communist Spy ?
Koln Fluxus Virus
Köln lots of young people at the opening,
I liked Patterson's barbecue,
I liked Shiomi's piano with marbles ,
I did not like my bed piece, I liked Eric Anderson's car , I did not like Higgin's room ordinary avant garde art
I liked the young public.
No girls to look at, in the streets of Minneapolis
the Anglo Saxons are all against sexuel harassment,
you can't talk about women or touch girls like in France.
Wolfgang Feelish like most Fluxus collectors is giving a show of his collection. From 1960 to 1992 he spent his time getting works if not free, cheap and is today making history with mediocre pieces.
Flux artists and money
Most Fluxus artists
say money does not count for them,
but hell it does.
Fluxus
In 1962 and 63 Fluxus came as a revelation to me,
a solution to art, something radical and new .
30 years later, it has lost its magic, it's just ego and money .
Walker museum contains
a modern American ethnocentric standard contemporary collection a real contempory CIA standard collection.
Minneapolis
I suppose Minneapolis would be paradise for me if I were a Minneapolis fish.
Allison is reprinting her old editions
The blink edition of 1960,
she says she needs money .
Krinzinger
whenever we start speaking about Vienna and the Krinzinger gallery someone comes up with the sentence :
"by the way, did you get yours works back from Krinzinger ? "
How to get your works back
Here is a tip when a fluxus dealer does not send back works he has in deposit : write directly a letter to the town mayor just as if he were responsible, as very often dealers ask for subsidies
the answer will be quick,
if it does not work
write to the president.
Who is who's victim
Nietch is Sarenco's victim
Ken is Ken's victim
Eric is love's victim
Joe Jones is (not was) Conz's and Berger's victim
Higgins is Shupenhauers victim.
Who has rich parents
Paik ? Dick ? Allison ? Ben Vautier ?
No mine were rich but got ruined.
Fluxus nationalisms
Have you noticed that although each show enfersices the cosmopolitanism of Fluxus, yet each show priveleges for nationalistic reasons some artists instead of others ? German shows give Beuys and Vostell the primadona , our shows stress on Maciunas,
in Seoul Paik is red carpet glory,
in Japan Yoko etc etc
Fluxus history
Fluxus has become
"references ,names, dates, history and wisdom
in reality Fluxus is full of lies, pinching ideas ,egos etc About Fluxus concerts
Fluxus is supposed to be amusing,
in reality Fluxus is getting boring.
why ? Because few in the Fluxus crowd understood Maciunas fundamental statement on Fluxus having to be anti elitic and funny, instead they cannot help perfoming as primadonas hanging on to the stage as long as possible.
Life in Minneapolis
I looked at tv three nights going,
I enjoyed Spân, CNN and
Alternative views,
the melting pot is still melting in Minneapolis
between Swedes Norwegians Anglo Saxons,
but not melting between Blacks Hispanics and Anglo Saxons.
Conz
Schwarzkogler Bruss Nitch and Muhl are Conz's capital for his old age pension, he said I will sell my collection
for over two hundred thousand marks
to Getty if possible.
How to hold a collection of pianos
Call in the artist to work on a piano. While he is working, make photos of him.
After some time explain to the artist you need the space, so he must get rid of the piano, if the artist does not know where to put it,
tell him that instead of having to throw it away or pay custody you can help him , get rid of it for $ 4,000 .
Three months later, phone to a museum and propose an important piece of the artist for only $ 40,000 .
Francesco Conz
Was mad with Goeff Hendriks for having the cheek of asking him money for the bath peace in a beautiful installation.
Geoff had the cheek to tell him the bath peace belongs to me if you want it, pay for it . Conz said "take it back or throw it out of the window". Minneapolis Walker museum
compared to other museums, a
big place with lots of money and a big staff.
They have found the trick, they have a complete
departement with staff only there for money raising.
How to achieve Fluxus show
Get together a bunch of old papers leaflets
given out or sent out in the sixties by H. Flynt,
Maciunas etc, add some reliques of concert such as photos have everything framed , get an art critic to write 15 pages on life art attitude, print a fat catalogue, (use the same old papers in Bologna in Wiesbaden in New York but frame them framed differently ) .
The Fluxus collector
of leaflets never says - "can I buy them ?" -
but only - "can you spare some ? " -
Fluxus art critics
who are the best Fuxus critics in Italy ?
Germano celant no, he dispises Fluxus, he only believes in povera art . Achille Bonnito Olliva so
He believes in Fluxus because it could bring him glory Henry Martin
Daniela Palazolli
Gino Dimagio loves Sarenco it is his masochist side.
Fluxus concert
I had a nightmare last night ,I was in a theater assisting aFluxus concert, someone came on stage and announced "bed music for Ben Vautier ". The stage curtain was closed but on stage, behind the curtain, ten fluxus males were making love to Annie my wife, and the sounds of her fucking were being transmitted by loudspeakers to the audience in the theater.
Should collectors buy works of Fluxus artists that are ill and going to die ? Prices went up after Beuys died ; will prices go up if Paik, if Ben (me), if Vostell die ? How can I be sure of it before I die ?
Who is rich, who is poor
invented stories or truth ?
Eric has a lot of money but he pretends to be poor,
Dick had a rich grandfather,
Flynt 's brother was a stock broker and his father a steel tycoon, Paik buys land in Korea to plant Beuy's trees,
Ken works for a publicity company.
Bielefeld Fluxus festival built round Andersh's Fluxus collection nice souvenir collection lots of good pieces by Fillious.
The performance evening was a joke, a big misunderstanding. This big fellow Ortiz burned candles round a piano, he smashed with an axe it looked pathetic, I found everything looking stupid, I found myself looking stupid. Takako did a piece that was just bad theater.
Who the hell is he showing at gallery David in Bielefeld, and who announces his show as Fluxus.
I would not mind it if it was a little bit Fluxus but it is just bad decoration.
Fluxus
Fluxus for dealers has turned into fetishism, and relique selling and for critics into gargarising statements .
Koepke in Copenhagen
Did he paint 49 pieces or 49, 000 pieces ?
I never saw so many pieces made by Koepcke as since he 's died, same for Marcel Brodhaers super prolific post life artists. Should I die so that 10,000 pieces be made after I die ?
Fluxus and money
At the Copenhagen superrmarket festival, there was a lot of selling, but who put the money in his pocket.
Fluxus art is different from pop art
because in Fluxus art world everybody wants something from the other free, in pop art everything has a price.
What did Ken bring to Fluxus that did not exist already ? I asked Ken ; he said I brought (a certain time of analytical capacity and an implemented srategy) For what ? did I ask him.
For promoting Fluxus, see my mailing list, he said.
What did Ben Vautier bring to Fluxus that did not exist already ? nothing
What did Brecht bring to Fluxus that did not exist already ? the notion of "event "
What did Dick Higgins bring to Fluxus that did not exist already ? "constellations" and something else press
Knizak brought broken records to Fluxus
Beuys brought trees and margarine to Fluxus
Who is Knud Petterson
Knud is very jealous of anybody who does Fluxus in Scandinavia except Eric. Knud is date minded, his favorite date is 1963 : why? Because 1963 gives him historical importance.
Knud hates Ken who wants te promote Fluxus in Scandinavia without going on his knees to ask authorisation.
Eric and Ken
Eric was irritaded by one of those essays Ken wrote in which he makes as if he knows everything. Eric's got a very big hidden ego,
he thinks people pinch his ideas,
he should know that they are unpinchable
because very cold and done in an unique way.
Beuys
got famous because he let himself get robbed,
if people steal your work they are clever,
if they are clever they will sell your work,
if they sell your work you will get famous.
Otto Muhl
Conz says that we must do something for Otto Muhl,
he should not be in prison.
Rêve de Beuys : rentrer au Bundestag
Rêve de Ben : rester au lit et recevoir dans son lit pour une demi heure seulement des femmes artistes persuadées que grâce à lui elles auront après du génie. Rêve de Conz : regarder 120 milllions de dollars dans un coffre en Suisse. Rêve de Gino: sauver l'Italie de la droite de la gauche de la mafia de l'église de Sarrenco
La collection de Conz c'est comme le mystère de la chambre jaune, elle n'existait pas quand sa femme divorcait
elle est devenue la plus grande dès que le divorce fut signé.
Les Collections
La collection de Silverman est sur ordinateur
La collection de Block est dans un hangar
La collection de Ben est dans une cave
La collection de Gino a disparu ou du moins c'est ce qu'il dit La collection de Andersh est faite de cadeaux et de petites économies La collection de Berger est faite moitié de mendicité et de générosité La collection de Remy est faite de passions et de bonnes affaires La collection de Wurtz est faite de classements et de méticulosité
Ben
I have given up answering Fluxus letters
but I don't know why
Jean Toche
funny fellow wants to tell the truth about USA imperialism, but is somewhere afraid the CIA will kill him,
so he invents fairy tales.
| Fluxus and sex appeal | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hannah Higgens | 8 on 10 | |
| Mieko Shiomi | 9 on 10 | |
| Charlotte | 5 | |
| Scneeman | 7 | |
| Eric Anderssen | 5 | |
| Ben | 7 | |
| Philip Corner | 9 | |
Dimagio is jealous of Conz (Conz says that)
Conz is jealous of Block
Block is jealous of Sarenco
Sarenco is jealous of Mora
Mora is jealous of Dimagio
Conz aurait aimé être le Richelieu de Fluxus.
Filliou is Fluxus
so the Dalai Lama is Fluxus too.
Anybody can be Fluxus To be Fluxus is easy
say this is art
say this is not art
take reality for something between cheese and a big bang, take off your shoes
think of your toes.
Fluxus photos
I was wondering why the photos of the nice Fluxus festival of 1963 keep up croping up everywhere in Walker and in Stocholm etc I can guess, it is because of Peter Moores' photos which are too expensive
Who is the least Fluxus
Vostell because he is a expressionist prima dona
Ben because he is an ethnist,
Beuys because he is a demagogue
Geoff Hendrix because he is spiritualist
likes going nacked,
Knizak because he is a activist
Al Hansen because he is a beat
Allison because she is a romantic
Eric because he is a bureaucrate
Brecht because he is a monk
Jhon Gibson the Irish New Yorker Gallerist
who gets now and then into tempers is not interested in Fluxus but in individuals, groups only interest him if he creates them
and can manipulate them.
Who copies who ?
Chiari copies Brecht,
Shiomi loves and copies Brecht,
Watts copies Brecht,
Ben copies Brecht,
Esther copies Brecht ,
Philp Corner copies Brecht ,
Brecht copies Cage,
nobody copies Beuys
except expressionists,
nobody copies Vostell except theatrical
prima donas.
Question
Was Maciunas a naïve, an idea pincher, or a salad maker ?
fantastic things get into Fluxus
Fluxus is so bad it will finsh up by being something quite new .
Walter Kôenig is a "voice " : he talks and while talking listens to his voice and thinks "oh what a nice voice I have ! "
Block is a smiler
He smiles and while he smiles he thinks
"there I am giving a good impression, now I will get all I want ".
Klaus Staek is a theorist, he has become agreat capitalist to his tastes down with capitalism.
Fluxus question
Do you think we should send
Christel, Shupenhauer, René Block
Armin, Hundertmark
chocolates or oranges if one day they finish up in prison.
Fluxus theory
art is anything
art must be brought to the poor
art is stupid
& anybody can be an artist , this does not mean we are not interested in being payed.
Fluxus grandparents
Cage
Satie
Dada
Zen
Marx
Billy the Kid
Cage is horribly boring
If you go to a Cage concert for fun, don't
80% of cage's music is nowadays really boring.
I like Isou
he is megalomaniac
blind
deaf
and crazy
Fluxus
How come Fluxus becomes art history
If fluxus fights art history
| What will people think of Fluxus in | |
|---|---|
| in 20 years | ouf ! |
| In 50 years | bof ! |
| in 100 years | what ? |
| in 1000 years | aah ! |
If Fluxus is working well today and we are having lots of museums shows, it is mostly because a Fluxus museum show is
an easy job to put together less expensive than minimal or pop .
Although Brecht signed smiling
Philip Corner has a more beautiful smile than George Brecht.
Bolzano
Henry Martin is not working for "black power"
but for white money.
Bolzano they got from each artist around 100 signatures for one million lires.
Maicuinas had cancer
Paik has diabetis
Ben has stress and back aches
Joe Jones has tears
Paiks latest Fluxus work concerning art and life is to try to live ten years more. Sarenco's latest Fluxus work is hiding from lions in Africa. Ray Jhonson Fluxus piece is to turn at night into a locus lobster in locus valley.
Who copies La Monte Young ?
Terry Rilly, Phil Glass ,etc
Who does not copy La Monte Young ?
Madonna and Michael Jackson
Who said
" I prefer a good fuck to a good fluxus. "
Five years ago a perfect snob could be Fluxus,
today a Fluxus artist can be a perfect snob.
A million years is nothing in the life of a simple pebble on the beach, unless that pebble turns Fluxus.
Please analyse my attitude towards Fluxus in taking into consideration that I am
only interested in the Fluxus situation in
2 million years from today.
Harlequin likes Fluxus. That's okay but does he like Fluxus because of money ? Because Fluxus artists are funny ?
Because Fluxus artists are important ?
Does he like Fluxus to get a free Fluxus collection ? Or does he like Fluxus because he is a free man and his nature goes towards crazy things ...?
Maybe all at the same time.
Wolfgang Feelish
On the invitation card of the Feelish's show , a photo of Feelish and Beuys kissing each other, is it Feelish kissing Beuys or Beuys kissing Feelish, and who is the "Judas " of the two ? Who used the other, unless maybe they just love each other and I should stop imagining artists and dealers as hypocrites.
Rosanna Chiesa : pari et dispari in Capri over the blue Mediterranean sea. What a nice title, I am invited to stay a week or more at Malaparte Villa, I don't know why but it makes me feel ill at ease. What will I have to do in exchange ? I have an idea : why not ask Ray Jhonson to invite Rosina to stay TEN days in the Bronx ?
Köln Virus (written just after the show )
Lots of artists are very angry with Christel Shuppenhauer. They say they have not beeing payed the 2,000 Marks
she promised.
She said there was no money left ,
yet she had enough money to go on holiday in Italy
and rent a stand at a Cologne art fair.
Bonito Oliva
is interested in Lettrisme and John Cage for the next Venice Biennale. Bonnito will do anything as long as he appears different from the other critics, as long as people say it is the great Bonnito who is doing it.
Sotheby's Italia is organizing a show
Art is life. Is it everybody knows that for Sotheby, art is money. So why not call the sale art and life is money ?
Bielefeld
I liked the Andersch Show in Bielefeld. It had a lot of spirit. Rich in ideas. The Filliou part was the best. But Andersch put in nearly everybody, even Arman, Dorothy Lannonne etc. His collection is mostly made of small papers and prints. In fact not so valable but intersting to look at.moments in the life of a collector going round, looking into waste paper baskets.
Who is Fluxus ? by Alain Gibertie
Al Hansen said : said :
"Il y en a qui ne sont pas Fluxus" (lors de "la Fête pour Robert" 1989) * BARBRO OSTLIHN said
about Charles (Dreyfus) et toi (Alain Gibertie)
"Vous n'êtes pas Fluxus".
* SERGE III :said
(dans la maison de campagne de Jean MAS 15/O3/92) "Jean Dupuy, ce petit poète avec ses petits poèmes n'a rien à voir avec Fluxus" An old German critic said :
: "Ben n'est plus du tout Fluxus "
Philip Corner said : "Maciunas m'a viré de Fluxus au bout de 2 ans avec Allison" (le 28 Mai 1992, chez moi)
* BEN dans "Traquen'Art" de Juillet 84 said:
- "Je ne crois pas que Vostell soit Fluxus"
- "Je dirais que lorsqu'Emmett Williams et Jackson Mac Low ou Dick Higgins font de la poésie à permutation, ils ne sont pas Fluxus".
* ALISON KNOWLES et PHIL CORNER (à New York 1986) said : "Ken Frieman a toujours cherché à accrocher la locomotive Fluxus de New-York". Conclusion : "FLUXUS, C'EST CELUI QUI LE DIT QUI L'EST" Alain Gibertie 5 Juin 1992
Fluxus virus
Official reason given by Christel to the question : "how come you did not get any money from the state for Fluxus virus ? "
It is because Vostell used all the money of the States with his six megalomaniac shows ?
Germany has Fluxus-postcard epidemia
Hans George Potche from Bonn
spends the time running after artists to get signatures. Why ? Do they sell them to Klaus Staek ?
They turn all into beggers,
I can't understand why.
New Fluxus artists are :
Gabor Toth
Gene Beery.
Are not the Intermedia artists put in the show.
New Fluxus popular song :
I am tired
and I want to go to bed
I had Fluxus
about half an hour ago
and it all went to my head.
Who is exactly Jean Toche ? Does he work for the CIA or for the GAAG ? What is the GAAG ?
Who is behind the GAAG, Khadafi
or Bush ?
I have a theory :
That the first person who understands God becomes God and the old God the one before him vanishes,
and that lasts till another one comes and explains God again but with a little bit more humour or difference.
Who is going to die next
Ben ?
Joe Jones ?
Paik who has diabetics and wants to make a Fluxus piece of living ten more years.
Does Rene Block mean to send me back or not my pieces ?
I don't understand Serge III. Is he jealous of me ?
Ken needs others to exist, alone he feels lonely.
Ken is a promoter, he must have something to promote. He promotes himself promoting,
nasty people say Ken is a parasite
nice people say Ken is a playboy.
Ken loves giving advice explaining everything, he should be appointed official Fluxus liberal profession congress organiser $
Beuys died richer than Maciunas,
Watts died richer than Joe Jones,
Charlotte died poor.
Did H. Martin fall in love with his wife because of her Fluxus hair ?
Sarenco
In Italy, people in the art world whisper in street corners : "do you know the news ? Sarenco is back" (just like for Zoro ) .
Mariana Beck in Roskilde
I dreamt "she walked into the bar, nacked with ten Danish policemen and had us all arrested for being dressed up " .
Good thing in the Köln show was the artists and listening to them, talk about how they met Cage and Beuys.
Beuys had strategy,
but strategy is not enough,
his dream was to speak at the German parliament
- the Bundestag -
the dream did not come true.
Al Hansen says you can't steal an idea
I suppose he means worth putting into one's pocket.
Köln Fluxus
Spending all that money on the catalogue was stupid - too many stupid texts.
Concerning understanding what Fluxus is made out of
Knizak , he never understood Fluxus, he mixed up Fluxus with theater. Allison mixed up Fluxus with sweet symbols.
And Dick writes usual poetry.
As to the Intermedia artists they had absolutly nothing to do with fluxus Just avant garde stuff.
I met Wolfgang Feelish
A kind of a gangster who likes telling stories on how he knew Beuys.
Joe Jones looks fantastic
He looks like an old lady begger.
Joe Jones could be used as a propaganda film on Bosnia.
Hannah Higgins is a pretty girl, she should stop trying to promote her parents stories on Fluxus and continue singing.
Fluxus Köln virus
The catalogue is not credible
just a catalogue to please Allison,
Dick and Ken Friedman.
Ben
I am getting alcoolic
I go into a bar ,
I ask for water and get beer.
Marianne the Fluxus Köln virus curator would like to be taken seriously as an art critic ; she writes compliments on her own show s. that's not being a critic, or is it ?
Important question :
Do you think that when I am out travelling, giving Fluxus shows, my wife is in another man's arms sucking and fucking ?
Walker Museum looks serious,
they want to do a good job in the spirit of Fluxus. But what is the spirit of Fluxus ?
Fluxus virus Köln
Shupenhauer 's credibility is very low :
artists not payed.
Marianne's organization is on the frontier of misunderstandings, for instance we would like to know if it is true that mister Kaufman gave no money tand if he did where did it go to ?
Knizak in Wiesbaden
Why did René Block invite Knizak to the festival of Wiesbaden ? He was not there in 1962,
mystery,
maybe
Knizak and Block work both for the Fluxus secret police.
Ben Vautier ego at work
I should have performed in KOLN,
just to be in the photo.
In twenty years they will say
who is on that photo ?
They won't say who did what .
Fluxus Köln
Allison work is a scandale more non Fluxus then Allison and Dick is not possible.
Allison copied Verranis avant garde art
and Dick made a black room with a stupid work of
art in a mixture of Arman
and second hand art student work.
Mieko was good and honest , she
has always built her work on the concept of event.
Al Hansen was funny and Fluxus with his little toy car.
Eric Andersen was good. He liked his car on skates.
The catalogue is a bad joke
These ignorant Germans risk to take for truth
Good press-covering,
might even turn into desinformation.
Henry Martin loves Fluxus but of course would love to get some editions free and get rich.
Köln is the town where George Brecht lives
and Brecht is playing " I am out of the game " in the game.
Bores me to write about Fluxus
Nothing to say I feel all has been said.
Only ego problems left.
Today Fluxus is looking at Fluxus' navel.
The Fluxus women dealers :
Ingueborg 2/10
Krinzinger 2/10
Shupenhauer 2/10
Esther Milman 3/10
Rosina Chiesa 3/10
3/10
Ben
I am getting tired and old,
okay it's great,
meeting friends but nothing is worth,
like staying at home in bed with Annie.
Meeting the Fluxus croud
is always nice,
each one with his personality :
Allison smilling and whispering,
Dicks listens to himself,
Ken talking loud to listen to himself,
Brecht does not want to meet anybody,
Wolf is thinking about himself, pure ego animal.
I like Ben Patterson's humour and smile.
He is better and better, more and more Fluxus,
younger and younger ,
where does he get all his energy from ?
Brecht
Is Brecht obliged to hide because everybody wants him to sign something ? Or because he is getting old ? Or because he is loosing his memory ? Or because people just bore him ?
Al HANSEN continues going about emptying ashtrays to build his sexy women with cigarette but he also has a small handycam video camera and films everything. One day all those tapes put together will be history.
Dieter Daniels is not around neither is Frederich Malsh are they angry with Shupenhauer.
René Block
I don't know if René Block is honest or not,
but it is two years now that the music show
is finished and I have not yet got my pieces back.
A-Yo looks sad and happy.
Kaufhof director man said to excuse himself
I prefered putting money in this ( Fluxus) than as always in the football teams. yet nobody really knows how much money was given and by him .
Marianne sits in the corner of the gallery writing as an art critic compliments on the show. Then she goes into the bureau and gives now and then 300 DM to an artist who is begging for it.
Christel says : "okay " to everybody but you don't know if she has understood, so you have to start again.
Vostell
All the Kings'men and all the Kings' soldiers cannot getVostell prima dona to way less than G. Brecht.
Al Hansen is very good on telling stories how a German dealer asked him one day why Fluxus people were alway's talking of dates, Al answered: it is because they are stupid ach saud the dealer stupidity I understand
very important
Filliou trick was to give the impression he was forgiving you, you did not know why and what he was forgiven but Saint Filliou was forgiving you, and Sainte Marianne was there to nod.
I feel this Fluxus letter will get me definitively
out of the scene (many will be very angry with me) and I will be able to rest.
Dick holds himself straight and has good manners.
The Köln virus catalogue I hate it
with the money they spent on it,
every body could have had a meal.
Fluxus legitimity
Who is Fluxus ? who is not ?
It's a question that Dick and Allison talk about.
To be Fluxus,
you must say you knew Maciunas or Cage .
Larry Millers wife is fantastic !
Flux editors
They all want a free edition or half free.
Henry Martin wants an edition.
Frau Shupenhauer wants an edition.
Hundertmark cries every year for an edition.
Littman does not even ask for an edition, he makes it all alone.
Ken
is a great organizer,
but he gets on my nerves
everybody gets on my nerves.
I am not pleased with myself why
should I be pleased with the others
I like people I don't like artists.
Last night I could not sleep I was more preoccupied with the Kurdish massacre by theTurks than by Fluxus.
George Brecht is 66 and does not want to meet anybody and he is quite right .
We would all love to do like George Brecht
but we don't have the courage to .
Fluxus did not do thing's well
Fluxus never taught me how not to be afraid, not to be able to fuck a girl I got into my bed.
Allison talks about 1962
as it were the day Jesus was born.
Fluxus : I dreamt of a pitiful sight of ten olds artists
walking up ten flights of stairs for glory.
Anita who painted the walls at Shupenhauer's told me that she has not been payed since july.
Shupenhauer \plainhas lots of courage
but is not clever.
If not she would not do such stupid things as not to offer now and then a beer to the artists.
What's nice about Fluxus is that We sit at a coffee house smiling and laughing , drinking beers , and saying nasty things on those who are absent.
I feel I am becoming sour and dry.
Every body wants money, nobody discussing ideas anymore.
Is Conz interested in Fluxus Formally no, he is Fluxus crazy money is his aliby.
Conz is interested in artists he can both help and plunder or as they say in France " plumer ".
George Brecht
George likes doing the contrary of what is expected from him, so I suspect him of letting himself be manipulated on purpose.
Toche
I know that Nappy is against Bush
but is Nappy a CIA spy ?
Ben Vautier
Will they forget me if I stop shouting my name
Why should I talk about myself
If I have had enough of myself ?
Another Fluxus subject of conversation
is Maciunas' death bed.
How Maciunas said this and not that
How this one was there and that one not
soon Maciunas' death bed will have to be as big as carnegy hall to contain all that said they were there.
About myself
Don't write to me long letters, I am getting confused in my mind and can't read anymore, but I am still good at looking at T.V. or just brooding.
What the hell should I write ?
Writing is useless,
breathing is useless,
living is useless,
dieing is useless,
waiting is okay,
isn't to that what the Somalians are doing sitting crutched on the knees, weak and waiting starving but not even hungry.
Willem Haake Museum
sent me at last back my originals
I was very angry with them.
-
FLUXUS : un monde fou et encore rien aux murs. La pagaille règne ici et pourtant c'est cette pagaille qui va plaire. "De l'autre côté c'est mort et asseptisé, chez vous on dirait qu'il y a de la vie".
Giancarlo Politi n'a plus l'air de croire en Fluxus. Quelqu'un a dû lui faire de la peine. Il adore aller à contre courant mais souvent en faisant cela il va avec tout le courant.
Bonito Oliva donne une conférence de presse sur Fluxus au 5ème étage de l'Hôtel Londra. A l'entrée de l'hôtel des malabars qui filtrent. Alors vous comprendrez mon étonnement lorsqu'au cinquième étage je trouve une véritable petite manifestation gauchiste avec banderolles, tracts et affiches pour huer et conspuer Bonito. Dans l'ascenseur quelqu'un me dit " ça a dû lui coûter au moins deux millions de lires et il ne doit pas être content parce que pour ce prix là il avait droit à des bombes fumigènes".
Dick Higgins se promène, répond aux intervieweurs, avec une voix qui résonne comme celle d'un ethnologue conférencier parlant de Fluxus comme s'il parlait d'une race d'insectes créée par lui dans les années 60.
Deux angoisses dans le groupe : comment va-t-on récupérer nos pièces ? Qui va payer la cinquième nuit d'hôtel ?
La comédie des hôtels :
Arrivé à Venise je suis allé au Londra Palace, j'ai demandé une chambre on m'a demandé mon nom et on m'a dit qu'il n'y avait rien de réservé. J'ai croisé à ce moment là Madame Falstrom qui m'a dit : on m'a mise dans un horrible petit hôtel alors je suis venue ici. Ceci étant, ayant peur de ne pas trouver d'hôtel j'ai pris une chambre pour une nuit, 250.000 lires. J'ai mal dormi car le climatiseur faisait du bruit et je n'ai pas pu me doucher car l'eau était brûlante. Seul luxe, qui ne me servait à rien, un coffre.
Par contre j'ai apprécié beaucoup les bacons and eggs au petit déjeuner le matin. Le lendemain je change d'hôtel, petit hôtel de la Gare, Hespéria, où je retrouve un tas de monde. Sauf bien sûr Wostell et quelques vedettes qui, je l'apprends par la suite, avaient leur réservation au Londra.
Venise Fluxus
Le stand Fluxus se situait sur une île qui s'appelait Juideca dans un espace de 10 mètres de haut avec des murs de briques rouges. On était en dehors de Venise et à côté de Venise en même temps, c'était très agréable. Ce fut surtout des rencontres magnifiques au bar et au restaurant. Robin Page chanta des chansons sur Robert Filliou, Al Hansen parlait avec les Punks, La Monte Young qui, il y a quatre ans de cela n'aurait jamais toléré la moindre infraction à ses désirs se laissa faire ainsi personne ne put vraiment écouter sa pièce car Marchetti avait installé une table à côté avec 12 cornes de bateau.
Je me suis réconcilié avec Lebel . D'abord je trouve réellement sa pièce très chouette. C'est la seule pièce iconoclaste car on voit Marcel Duchamp travesti en femme en train de pisser dans une baignoire.
Carolee Scheeman Tout le monde se demande ce qu'elle fout là dans Fluxus. Elle envahit le milieu avec une énorme pièce pas du tout Fluxus.
Robin Page est venu avec 34 toiles sur l'anti-art. On y voit entre autres Robin Page déguisé en barbe bleue manger des artistes au petit déjeuner, Robin Page en mafioso raquetter des galeries, etc . Hélas sur ces 34 toiles Gino ne lui a permis d'en accrocher que 6. Donc il y en a tout en tas dans un coin.
Nous avons eu bien sûr les trois comédies de Yoko Ono qui, je dois le reconnaître, est très intelligente. D'abord elle s'est réconciliée avec moi. Elle m'a dit que mon espace était intéressant. Ensuite elle m'a demandé l'autorisation de me signer mon tableau "This is not art". Je l'ai laissée faire. Ensuite elle a dû oublier que Robin Page en 1962 avait pris un télescope et l'avait pointé vers une lune un peu plus loin dans l'immeuble en face. Alors elle a fait installer un télescope et puis est allé écrire sur un mur à côté de mon tableau "Dont look at me", un tout petit tableau : "I am small" Yoko Ono 1972. Ensuite dans la salle n° 2 il lui fallait aussi quelque chose elle a dû oublier qu'Arman avait coupé des objets en deux en 1960 et elle a installé au mur tout un tas de moitiés d'objets qui faisaient très sous-Arman.
Enfin, après un scandale que je n'ai pas compris, trois grosses caisses sont arrivées qu'on a mises dans un coin et photographiées et il paraîtrait que c'était encore une partie de l'oeuvre de Yoko qui arrivait.
Un bon point pour elle, elle n'est pas restée au vernissage car ça aurait été sans doute la grande bousculade.
Dès que j'étais parti, la grande comédie Yoko pour la gloire a recommencé : avec son assistant John Hendriks,
elle a envahi l'espace rendant Vostell malade. Décidément Fluxus est devenu la gloire des egos et n'a rien à voir avec Fluxus non ego. Personnellement je ne suis pas contre l'ego parce qu'il est la réalité. Je suis contre les mauvaises oeuvres. C'est imposer en tant que Fluxus quelque chose qui ne l'est pas et qui ne possède pas du tout l'esprit Fluxus qui lui existe.
La presse en général (du moins les cinq premiers jours) n'a même pas mentionné l'existence de l'espace Fluxus, chacun jouant surtout l'esprit national c'est-à-dire de parler du pavillon français inexistant.
Par contre la télé allemande a consacré au niveau de la Biennale, une heure à Fluxus, sans aucune raison particulière.
Ce qui corobore la critique que fait Maxwell dans "The European" : la presse et la culture françaises sont ethno-centristes.
Wolf Vostell c'était bien sûr la pièce gigantesque, le grand mur de Berlin, Monsieur l'Expressionniste Allemand, seulement voilà juste au-dessus de sa pièce qui prenait tout le mur du fond il y avait une fenêtre qu'ils avaient bouchée avec un panneau alors moi, dans la nuit, j'ai pris un échafaudage et je suis monté et j'ai écrit le mot Ego de Ben ce qui a rehaussé la pièce en lui donnant de l'humour. Ceci étant Wostell l'a laissé car il a compris que c'était à son avantage.
Venise
Ce dont les artistes ne se sont pas aperçu c'est qu'à Venise le grand sujet de conversation était le ras le bol des touristes. Et c'est le refus de Venise de laisser perdre son âme et son "italianité". La municipalité venait de voter à une écrasante majorité un non à l'exposition universelle. J'ai trouvé tout ça très positif et j'ai pensé que pour Nice c'est déjà trop tard. Elle n'appartient plus aux niçois et a été vendue aux gens de l'extérieur et c'est une faute grave.
Ben théorie
J'ai deux flèches à mon arc : la recherche du nouveau, l'autre : et les ethnies. Les deux flèches se rencontrent quand il s'agit de répondre à la question : à quoi sert l'art ? et à quoi ressemblera l'art dans cent ans ?
Sera-t-il unidirectionnel, multidirectionnel ?
Ben populiste
En tant qu'artiste d'avant garde à la recherche du nouveau J'en fais toujours trop je suis un artiste populiste.
J'aime faire rire. C'est pour cette raison que mon expo à La Mudima était pleine de "trucs" à voir et à lire.
Ben idiot
Je me pose des questions sur moi-même, sur mon ego : puis-je le changer ? est-il justifié ?
Ce que j'aime dans la Mudima et dans Gino c'est une certaine attitude envers la vie et l'art qui contient le doute.
Important annoucement
for the Sidney Biennale 1991 did six paintings.
The three flowing paintings
"If life is art " have disappeared,
I have gone to the police to announce they have been stolen. So if anybody has them, he/she must know he/she can get in the big trouble.
Vostell 's glory in Germany
6 museums at a time.Too heavy.
Higgins is working on his thousand symphonies using up all the music the world contains.
Who is she ?
she does not pay for a coffee
she is always crying for presents
she never has the money to pay what she owes you
Some German dealers
think that Fluxus is a gold mine .
Jean Dupuy
wants and does not want glory.
At Emily Harvey's show I had the visit during my conference of the black muslims but they did not stay although they looked intersted.
Robert Watts
was a funny man,
every time I met him he woud say I am going to show at Castellis, he did not believe in Fluxus.
Shupenhauer is a funny person. She has energy she's is intersted in Fluxus but she does not keep her promises.
She thinks artists are cows that one must milk.
I was at the Willem Haake museum for a performance nice public good performance but no humanity in the museum.
Emily Harvey
Wonderful lady one of the few millions who came over with the May flower
Alla you remember Alla's show in New York
he never payed the piece he sold of mine so I will do another one and sell it cheaper.
Conz
Word going round that conz is in trouble the banks have taken away his check book.
New York very depressed
why not
why should they contiue buying ?
how can you continue buying art man
when across the street they are hungry ?
That's not a good argument.
Fluxus going every where
Minneapolis
Madrid
Tokyo
Malmo
Copenhagen
Shupenhauer has not sent me back yet
the doubles of my edition.
"tTmes are changing ".
Emily thinks life is not just with her
She says everybody steals except me.
Talking of art dealers.
Qu'est ce que fluxus est et n'est pas
Fluxus n'est pas du professionnalisme,
FLuxus n'est pas dans la production de produits d'art, Fluxus ce n'est pas des femmes à poil,
Fluxus n'est pas du pop art,
Fluxus n'est pas du théâtre intellectuel d'avant garde ou de boulevard, Fluxus n'est pas l'expressionisme allemand,
Fluxus n'est pas de la poésie visuelle pour sténo-dactylos qui s'ennuient.
Fluxus contient une attitude envers l'art. C'est un mouvement radical. Il remet l'art et parfois l'espèce humaine en question
Fluxus contient "l'event" de Georges Brecht : mettre un vase de fleurs sur le piano. Fluxus contient l'action vie/musique : faire venir un professionnel du tango pour danser sur scène. Fluxus cherche à établir une relation entre la vie et l'art, Fluxus contient le gag, le divertissement et le choc
Fluxus contient une attitude envers l'art, le non art, l'anti art, le refus de l'ego Fluxus contient une grande part de l'enseignement de John Cage, du Dada, du Zen. Fluxus est léger et contient de l'humour.
TWO INCHES de Robert WATTS
PIANO PIECE N°1 de George BRECHT
PIANO PIECE N°2 de George BRECHT
COUNTING SONG de Emmet WILLIAMS
TUBA SOLO de Robert WATTS
INCIDENTAL MUSIC de George BRECHT
PAIL OF WATER FOR PAIK
DRIP MUSIC de George BRECHT
PIANO CONCERTO de René KOERING
FOR ERIK SATIE de George BRECHT
CONSTELLATION de Dick HIGGINS
MAMA de Giuseppe CHIARI
VIOLON SOLO DE SHIOMI
VIOLON SOLO DE G. BRECHT
VIOLON SOLO POUR PAIK
DISAPPEARING MUSIC FOR FACE DE SHIOMI
JUMELLES DE Robert EREBO
MICRO de KOSUGI
BONBONS d'ANNIE
KK TRACE DE Robert WATTS
PIANO PIECE N°1 de BEN
PIANO CONCERTO DE SERGE III
PINAO PIECE N° 1 de Georges MACIUNAS
PIANO PIECE N° 2 de Georges MACIUNAS
NEW PAPER MUSIC pour ALISON KNOWLES
IN MEMORIAN TO ADRIANO OLIVETTI de George MACIUNAS ZEN FOR HEAD pour PAIK
INVENTAIRE de D. SPOERRI
SANITAS II de T. SCHMIT
PAPER PIECE pour BEN PATTERSON
Fluxus had become lies.
Donguy does not pay, he smiles.
Block does not pay but he carries away your piano, so you don't have to pay to get rid of it.
Fluxus ages
Brecht is 66 years old
Ben is 58
Paik is
Ben is
Allison is
Flynt is
Higgens is
Kaprow is
Jhon Cage's class stories are growing like the May flour myth, soon John Cage will have had 1,000 students in his class.
Who is James Lewis
Does he run for Fluxus
in the 1,000 or the 100,000 meter race ?
Why is he asking for all these documents ?
Fluxus chair show
buy a chair, sit on a chair,
look at a chair
Philip Corner says you can't steal an idea, it's not heavy enough.
Fluxus devient aujourd'hui ce qu'il ne voulait pas être : des produits, de l'importance, de la gloire,
et peut-être bientôt un star système.
On verra Fluxus manipulé à des fins nationales, il y aura Fluxus Allemagne contre Fluxus U.S.A. Il y aura la vision René Block de Fluxus avec, pour épicentre, Beuys, Vostell, Wiesbaden ce qui, d'après moi, est une erreur.Il y aura la vision Silverman de Fluxus avec pour épicentre Maciunas.
Jean Hubert Martin va jouer la carte Villefranche de Fluxus avec Filliou. Il y a la vision de Fluxus de Gino di Maggio concentrée autour d'individus qui possédaient un art d'attitude.
L'épicentre de Fluxus se situe dans MACIUNAS et George BRECHT et la source, chez John CAGE, DUCHAMP, et les Constructivistes Polonais et Russes.
Fluxus reste essentiellement un art d'attitude, à partir de l'idée de la vie et surtout en se décollant de l'art.
Fluxus : dans la mesure où ce sont une bande de râtés en train de réussir à avoir de la gloire grâce à leur esprit anti- gloire. Fluxus se mord la queue, aïe, ça fait mal !
Après la mort de Serge III
il y aura dix personnes pour
dire qu'il était important,
aujourd'hui il y en a vingt pour dire qu'il n'a rien fait.
Fluxus Gibertie
Bien que Gibertie soit souvent à côté de la plaque, son non art, son anti-art et son côté râté ont souvent un côté Fluxus. A Carcassonne par exemple il voulait toujours qu'on aille discuter au bistrot. Et puis il parle toujours de fête.
Si Fluxus était une barrique, il serait plein d'autant d'egos que n'importe quel autre mouvement.
Si Fluxus était une fleur, c'est un bouquet de marguerites cherchant à se faire passer pour des orties.
Si Fluxus était une voiture ce serait pour certains une Mazeratti déguisée en 2 CV et pour d'autres 2 CV déguisée en Mazeratti.
Fluxus a échoué à cause de la nature humaine. Au départ Fluxus voulait changer l'art complètement. Aujourd'hui Fluxus reconnait qu'il n'a rien changé de fondamental. Il a tout au plus posé la question du changement.
L'ensemble des artistes Fluxus est aussi égoïste que les autres artistes faisant de l'abstraction ou peignant sur la place du Tertre.
Ceci étant, l'ensemble des artistes Fluxus est plus lucide et donc parfois plus cynique par rapport à l'art. Je dirais qu'ils se rendent compte du pétrin dans lequel ils sont. Certains en rient, certains font la culbute mais la plupart sont conscients. Au départ Fluxus voulait être
une douleur dans le cul de l'art.
Au lieu de cela elle sert aujourd'hui de pommade à l'art.
Qui a dit :
"Il faut laisser le mythe de "Fluxus important" continuer de s'étendre.Ca payera le loyer".
Fluxus résonne, dans les oreilles de certains, comme un mouvement historique, et le propre de beaucoup de mouvements historiques est qu'il ne s'y est rien passé ou presque rien.
At my Emily Harvey's show I even had the visit during my conference of the black muslims they did not stay, but they looked interested.
Emily Harvey is always saying
I am honest , just look at all those other dealers that are dishonest, it's not right .
Fluxus in some minds is :
ha ! ha ! I will get rich very quick.
FLUXUS IN VENICE BY BEN VAUTIER
OUT OF MY IMAGINATION
This is how things will happen
as we will all be sitting Piazza San Marco with sun glasses and straw hats Fellini will pass by, stop, come up to us and say :
"I would like to make a TV show on Fluxus, something like Santa Barbara or Dallas. I am not quite fixed yet."
Of course, we would have to find a girl for Paik
and a plot, and money, and a bad man :
it could be Ben Vautier or Vostell.
Two tables away, a couple will recognize us and talk about how Paik cut in the 60 ties Cage's tie, one of us then will say :
you remember in Wiesbaden .........and Higgins will shake his head. After three beers, two vodkas and ten glass of tap water Emmett might say :
"Its a pity Beuys is not here, if he were, we would already have had the press. On the other side of the Piazza San Marco,
Pedrini with a pair of binoculars will be watching Bonito's table and Bonito with binoculors will be watching Celant's table. Sohn, disguised as a "gondolier", two tables behind us will be waiting to get the table-paper-cloth for his archives .But Sassi will whisper into Diego ear : "you 'd better get it before Sohn ". Of course nobody will call for the waiter,
instead, everybody will want to talk to Ben Vautier (that's me) who thinks of himself as an important theorist will say :
"we must face reality. Fluxus was supposed to be a anti-art , anti-money, anti-elitique movement ; has turned into a pro-art, pro-money, super-elitique movement and I shall..." That's when Patterson will grumble "shut up Ben, and take Fluxus as it comes " "Good idea" the waiter will say
Kill the beast , get the jack pot, who cares about Maciunas , rewrite history
I will say that he told me : "Higgins was the best ".
Yoko will say he did everything because he was in love with her. Don't tell the press you were jealous of him.
We all looked at the waiter ; the waiter was Francesco Conz .
That started us all talking at the same time
on what Fluxus was and who was the first .
Wolf brought out Decollage : La Monte brought out Anthology ; Yoko brought out Grape fruit ;Ben ,Ben Dieu etc
But that was not enough to calm us down .
Vostell said : "if it was not for me in Wiesbaden"
Jackson Mac Law said : "if it was not for Chamber street " Robin Page said : "if it was not for Spoerri's misfit fair in London " Al Hansen said : "if it was not for John Cage's class in 1956 La Monte Young : "if it was not for Darmstadt ".
It could have go on like that for hours if Eric Andersen had not proposed we accept as a new member the mysterious composer who shouted "boring, boring, boring" during the Paris' concert .
Paik asleep till then in an armchair ( dreaming he was buying thousands of square miles of land in Korea ) woke up and started :
"I think sometimes Fluxus is even more boring than Zen " Henry Flynt who had said nothing till then saw Kosuth in the crowd, jumped up and shouted : "hey, I am Henry Flynt and I invented Conceptuel Art not you ! ",.Then turning towards us said : "Let's put Fluxus on the stock market".
Hardly had he finished saying that when a small bus arrived escorted by police bikes, two men got out, installed a video screen in front of our table and through satellite Yoko appeared on the screen smiling : "I thought I would join you and have a coffee" Bonito jumped stood on his table and shouted : "Viva l'Italia ! ". Caterina Gualco lifted her glass and said : "I drink to Fluxus. La situation est bonne" A very smart official bowed and handed Emmett Williams a sealed letter from Milan. Knizak asking us to excuse the new minister of culture in Prague but he was kept by urgent matters. Kosugi said : " have a new Anima piece for Venice. Let's all stop breathing " "Thats okay with me "said Joe Jones, " but we must first pay for the drinks. Vodka is quite expensive on
Piazza San Marco, and as Gino is not here ; on friday he goes to see Kadafi in Lybia, I shall play my mechanical violin on the Piazza and we pass round
the hat", but Jean-Jacques Lebel who is not Fluxus but rich called for the waiter to pay for the bill.When the waiter arrived, Eric Anderson said "Fifteen more vodkas please". After the Vodkas, the incredible started to happen: we saw Filliou walk up to our table, sit down,and say say "I would love a cup of tea and I wonder who invited me, you know I am not Fluxus " After that first miracle we were less astonished when Koepke walked by in a very bad mood and shouting in danish " they are barbarians! no toilets nowhere, and too many people around for me to piss in the canal..."
Dorothy Lanone said : " calm down Koepke, we should all listen to Wolf explain how he taught Fluxus on his knees to Beuys and Tomas Schmit ". That got Tomas very angry, who then stood up and said " all of you get out of Venice, this is my bar " Dupuy, wise, said "don't get angry since Koepke and Filliou have arrived, we must expect Maciunas too ".
There was then a big silence, and Esther of the group Zaj tiptoed away ."Is tiptoeing music ? And I hope Maciunas will not want us to live on a dollar a day ! " said Robin Page That started us talking about money.Yoko's money, Paik's money, Silverman's money, and Gino's no money, and how Fluxus would soon become very expensive and we would all get very rich and famous
This kind of talk could have go on a long time if Mac Law had not interrupted us with his dream : "Last night , he said, I dreamt Maciunas came to see me and asked me : "Jackson, is really Fluxus important ? Or just another stupid movement trying to be new ? " "Nonsense" said Dieter Daniels the great German art critic. "Fluxus is important because you are not important and what's more important is that you don't not want to be important " "Thats a lie" yelled the Charles Dreyfuss the Albanian critic.Fluxus is " le plus pur des mouvements hypocrites" Fluxus is important because it asks the real. Questions:"why ask questions? Why be important ?"
And he added in french : " vous êtes tous merveilleux ! Higgins merveilleux ! Yoko merveilleuse ! Ben merveilleux ! Chiari merveilloso!"
"Idiot " ! said Vostell, "nobody wants to be merveilleux or a Fluxus saint, all we want today is glory, money.
and truth. when does the press conference start ? I will tell them the real History of Fluxus . "Why talks of importance ? We are only a bunch of visual poets performing our lives " said Allison Knowles.
"No " said John Hendriks, "the importance of Fluxus is in Maciunas' radical stands towards art and society, and Maciunas alone ".
"No", said Corner, "if as Robert Watts hoped, we had finished up in Castelli's gallery, we would have been important , alas we are only great musicians ." "No ! The importance of Fluxus is in love and peace", said Yoko from her screen, "I love you all". "Tout doux ", said Dupuy, I know only one artist who is not agressive in Fluxus and that'sTakako Saito, she is simple and calm and true "
"No ! The importance of Fluxus is in the notion of EVENT that comes from George Brecht , only new thing after Duchamp and me", said Ben (that's me) "No! the importance of Fuxus is in music and that comes from Cage and Zen " said Marchetti, Hidalgo approuving with a nod
"No! the importance of Fluxus is in its Attitude towards art ; being a pain in art's ass " said the waiter .
"E allora "? said Chiari", Fluxus e facile, thats why it is NOT important ". All this talking depressed Ken Friedman who taking in his breath said : "gone with the wind are the days I wrote Fluxus will change the world". Bloom, very pretty girl from Oslo, smiled at him and said : "don't worry Ken, nobody really knows what Fluxus is and even less cares ".
"That's okay with me" said George Brecht , who was not there to say it . Neither was Al Hansen who had gone around the corner and was selling 1 D.M. paper bills signed Al Hansen for 500 D.M. In the mean time Vostell who was reading this text said : "Your text on Venice is very bad, BEN VAUTIER, it's nasty ; we are not at all like that and none of us would have said such things; and why do you have always to talk about the others ? Talk about yourself , write the truth, write that I was the first in Wiesbaden, you must take back all your said repent ". "No", I said, "I refuse to repent . I have come to Venice to become post Fluxus. I Have come to Venice to look at the girls on the Piazza San Marco "
BEN VAUTIER MARCH 1990
to survive
I don't want to do art I want to be happy,
but to be happy I must survive,
and to survive I go for power, money, glory, sex.Maybe I could survive without all these ingredients,
but ego is difficult to get rid off.
So I feel trapped, trapped by my ego in art
but this is also not so true, i would feel very unhappy without money, glory, fame, sex and art .
Unless maybe I don't want to be happy.
GINO me doit toujours
5000 francs pour mon voyage
pour piano forte
assistant vincent
matériel pour le piano
voyage en voiture
autoroute, essence
Fredman Maalsh
good art critic
Harlequin made me do a box.
when I asked for my money, he sent me 1000 DM and said he had sold everything
Fluxus small shows
everybody wants objects.
Fluxus is a dish of food
with a taste of money
People do Fluxus shows to get Fluxus works free or half free.
Malmo concert 1992
something happening,
nothing happening, bothways
we behave like second world war veterans .
Hundertmark is stingy I did five editions with him. He never sent me my part and practically no money. I call that small.
He sent once 1,000 DM and said that pays for everything.
Higgins is working on his thousand symphonies,
using up in his modest megalomania all the music the world contains .
Philip Corner said :
"Concert without Fluxus is a day toilet without flush".
He also said :
"A Fluxus a day keeps the doctor away ".
Pluriethnical Fluxus
It would be interesting if Fluxus could take a strong pluri ethnical stand, but I have doubts ; dada went gaga ; Fluxus is going stupid they can only brood on themselves .
I like the fluxus croud yet I can't help being nasty with them why?
Fluxus Copenhagen
Copenhagen looks serious, they are going to give us 2,000 dollars. But what happened to all the works I left last time in Roskylde ? my piano, my bed,
Knud has his idea of what a Fluxus concert should be like . Maciunas had Spoeris opinion that a concert should be a respiration made of short pieces. My hotel room is in front of the train station, I stay up all night watching people wait for the trains .
Allison was fantastic,
she climbed a rope of ten meters high as if she were nineteen. Impressed me.
Fluxus KOLN
a French Fluxus artist said :
"We were used to this kind of stuff from the Italians, but not from the Germans Al Hansen who likes to get payed got two checks bounced. In Germany you can bounce a check, in F, rance Aou can't you get into trouble (Al). allison Knowles : is it true that Allison has withdrawn from Munich virus because she has not been payed? ( Christel was furious)
Al Hansen who has already been a few days to prison thinks that prison will do Christel a lot of good, it's good for skin compexion and diet .
Al said : "it's time Fluxus artists should start biting the hand that does not feed them" Christel reminds me of Sue Helen out of Dallas tv show . By the way, why did she leave Essen ?
Al says they were maybe after her there
Rumours that Emily Harvey is moving definitivly to Venice. She is fallen in love with a wealthy nice young man, maybe after all not so old
who said :
"Dick Higgins is the baby thrown out with the bath water " ?
Yaki is no more Fluxus than the archbishop of Canterbury.
Amadeo Al Hansen's pupil is very handsome and has the most beautiful smile in Köln. He should give a show of just smiling now and then
Emmett Williams
is fantastic but I don't know why.
Chiari and Brecht
Today Chiari plays Brecht not only in his music but also by staying at home and refusing to journey anymore
Fluxus is life
Fluxus people would all love to say they succeeded in disappearing into life, but alas, they crave for glory , not for life, unless life is glory. Fluxus artists are like Jekyl and Hydes running round the world for anonymous glory.
Their Fluxus night prayer is :
"Please, God, help me become more anonimous than Beuys, Mlaciunas, Brecht .
new race of Fluxus : vultures flying in circles in the sky. In Copenhagen, in Italy wherever we go, we get less and less audience an more and more photographers cameramen,
sinceI am also a telepath, I catch their thoughts.
First thought :
"Beuys died, Maciunas died, when these fools will die, I will sell this for 2,000 DM.No, maybe thirty thousand ".
Second thought :
"Could you please show me your ass, Ben ?
Thanks, like that , just a little bit to the left, thats fine"
Daniel's gallery in Amsterdam
is interested in money.
Appel is money,
Corneille is money,
Art is money ,
Arman is money,
why not ?
money is healthy.
who does not pay their artists ?
Litman of Bale does not pay his artists.
Alla from New York does not pay,
but both have cars etc
This is an official invitation to participate in the 30 years commemoration Fluxus festival of Nice by staying at home,
and doing nothing,
but let me know about your nothing.
How did you do nothing etc
Participation sent to
Takajko
Eric Andersson
Weshall tries to make a catalogue with all your ways of doing nothing
le rien c'est le vide ,
micro de koàsugi du presque rien,
Malevitch c'est rien,
nichts is alles,
bomber le mot rien ,
magie faire disparaitre
je parle trop
il y a le presque rien.
Venice Biennale
Paik was shown in the German pavillon
People critisized him because they said his work was unfinished
Venice consacrated Paik and John Cage
Also Gutai and lettrism
Some years ago, Venice's backbone was pop art and new realism This year, its backbone is attitude art
With as leading minds Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Gutai and lettrism
Fluxus at the Whitney Museum of New York
They found to ask me if I was coming to the opening dinner They didn't talk about paying my trip
I suppose they have budget problems
Fluxus in Chicago
I will be going to perform in Knud Petterson's Fluxus concert in which he transforms Fluxus artists in obedient waiters