WHAT IS FLUXUS ?
Fluxus
We can in Fluxus always find somebody who did it before.
Fluxus importance
Is Fluxus giving a lot of importance to non importance ?
Is Fluxus giving no importance to importance ?
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.
Fluxus
If in politics everything is lies
why not in Fluxus ?
Fluxus roots
If Fluxus was a tree where are its roots ?
Cage ? Duchamp ? Zen ? Malewitch ?
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.
Fluxus n’est pas
Comme nous sommes beaucoup à ne pas savoir de quoi est fait Fluxus, voici ce que, 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.
Fluxus does not exist
Fluxus is manipulated by the CIA :
reality is eating , sleeping, fucking.
Not Fluxus.
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 ?
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.
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 est un art d’attitude, qui contient un détachement de la part de l’artiste envers l’art.
Fluxus
could be art turning true,
or art getting “on” itself,
or art trying auto-criticism,
or art going “bust”.
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.
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
Flynt’s 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.
Maciunas’ 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 ? “
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
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 .
How to archieve 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 ? ” –
Excerpted from Ben Vautier newsletter of January 19, 2023 “FLUXUS À NICE” mailed from Ben Vautier
ego @ ben-vautier. com. Original version published in 1997 on his website @ ben-vautier.com