FLUXUS EAST
FLUXUS NETWORKS IN CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE
Exhibition September 27 to November 4, 2007
Wed to Sun 2-7 pm
Opening: September 26, 7 pm
Künstlerhaus Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2, D-10997 Berlin
www.fluxus-east.eu
Gábor Altorjay, Eric Andersen, Azorro, Robert Filliou, György Galántai, Tibor Hajas, Geoffrey Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Tadeusz Kantor, Danius Kesminas, Milan Knizák, Alison Knowles, Július Koller, Jaroslaw Kozlowski, Vytautas Landsbergis, George Maciunas, Jonas Mekas, Larry Miller, Ben Patterson, Mieko Shiomi, Slave Pianos, Tamás St. Auby, Endre Tót, Gábor Tóth, Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, Jiri Valoch, Ben Vautier, Branko Vucicevic, Emmett Williams among many others
Curator: Petra Stegmann | Exhibition architecture: Andrea Pichl
Fluxus is well-known as an (anti-)artistic, international network with centres in the USA, Western Europe and Japan. But what about this “intermedia” art — art encompassing music, actions, poetry, objects and events — beyond the “Iron Curtain”? What echo did Fluxus find in the states of the former Eastern Bloc, and what parallel developments existed there?
As a “programme of action”, Fluxus — according to its self-styled “chairman”, the exiled Lithuanian George Maciunas in a letter supposedly to Nikita Chruscev — was predestined to bring about unity between the “concretist” artists of the world and the concretist society of the USSR. Maciunas planned Fluxus as a collective based on the model of the Russian LEF (Leftist Arts Front). But these plans — e. g. for a performance tour by the artists on the Trans-Siberian Railway –, developed with polished communist rhetoric in manifestos and letters, were to remain no more than a utopia.
After 1962, a different FLUXUS EAST developed through creative exchange between Fluxus artists and artists/musicians of the former Eastern Bloc, leading to events including Fluxus festivals in Vilnius (1966), Prague (1966), Budapest (1969), and Pozna? (1977).
FLUXUS EAST represents a first stocktaking of the diverse Fluxus activities in the former Eastern Bloc; the exhibition shows parallel developments and artistic practices inspired by Fluxus, which are still adopted by some young artists today. Besides the “classic” Fluxus objects, the display will include photographs, films, correspondence, secret police files, interviews and recordings of music that document the presence of Fluxus in the former Eastern Bloc. As an interactive exhibition, FLUXUS EAST aims to facilitate a profound encounter with ideas, works and texts — some presented as facsimiles to permit intense study. It is possible to play at FLUX PING PONG, and visitors are also invited to explore the POIPOIDROME by Robert Filliou.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue (German/English | ca 280 pages | ca 200 images | hardcover), available at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien contact: info@bethanien.de
The exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien and the catalogue are funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Further exhibition venues: Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (November 30, 2007 – January 13, 2008), Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków (February 7 – March 30, 2008), Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest (April 17 – June 1, 2008).
Network programme in Berlin:
Tschechisches Zentrum Czechpoint Czech Action Art of the 1960s to the 1990s
Exhibition | September 14 – November 2, 2007 | www.czech-berlin.de
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin Portable Intelligence Increase Museum. Pop Art, Conceptual Art, and Actionism in Hungary during the 60s — 1956-1976 / The Near-East-European Criss-Cross (1956-1989)
Exhibition | September 26 – November 4, 2007 | www.hungaricum.de
Polnisches Institut Berlin Galeria Akumulatory 2
Exhibition | September 28 – November 8, 2007 | www.polnischekultur.de
Galerie des Slowakischen Instituts Otis Laubert: KARTEN UND FLAGGEN Exhibition
October 31 – November 16, 2007
For more information about FLUXUS EAST contact: fluxus@inarcadia.de or presse@bethanien.de