Milan Knížák: Lying Down Ceremony, December 1968, New Brunswick, Douglass College

Fluxus eliminated the boundaries between life and art. It was also sometimes the source of scandal. While Fluxus artists in the West balanced their concerts and happenings with the practical rules of modern society, artists in the Eastern Bloc saw the movement as a tool of power with which to combat political oppression. In Hungary, the performances of Miklós Erdély, Tamás St. Auby, Gábor Altorjay and Tibor Hajas offered a breath of fresh air to the movement. Tadeusz Kantor did the same in Poland and Milan Knizak in the former Czechoslovakia. By the mid-70s, a kind of Fluxus network was created from Vilnius to San Francisco, with happenings anywhere creating responses everywhere. This network is at the centre of the exhibition in the Ludwig Museum.

 

György Galántai: Hommage à Vera Muhina, performance with G.A. Cavellini and Júlia Klaniczay, Heroes Square, Budapest, 1980

Curator Petra Stegmann has included in the exhibition Maciunas's famous letter to Stalin along with the first Fluxus manifestos (some in facsimile), examples of mail art, photos and videos. While the exhibition does not attempt to explain the works, it shows the movement's effect in the Eastern Bloc.

 

At the entrance to the exhibition is a timeline on which one can follow the history of the movement, revisiting such events as the 1977 four-day Fluxus festival in Warsaw.

 

For the exhibition's opening on April 18, the Ludwig Museum will host a one-day symposium on Fluxus. The exhibition runs until June 1, 2008.

 

Author: Eszter Götz / Photo: Ludwig Museum

Tamás St.Auby / Gábor Altorjay: Happening: The Lunch (In memoriam Batu Khan), 1966