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Fluxus

Fluxus is an international art movement that formed in the 1960s in New York and Tokyo as well as in the German cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf, Darmstadt and Wiesbaden.

George Maciunas, an American artist of Lithuanian descent, is commonly regarded as the initiator of Fluxus. It is he who coined the term Fluxus. Originally intended as the title of an art magazine he had envisioned, Fluxus became the name for the concerts and festivals he initiated all over the world as well as for publications of the art movement and a number of serial objects he created, so-called multiples. Fluxus comes from Latin and means „flowing“. In this sense the art movement stands for a gradual „flowing“ transition from art to life while simultaneously pointing out the evanescence of all things.

The artists who joined Fluxus over the years share the approach to work on the thresholds of music, fine arts, literature, and theatre. This usually happens in the form of an event or happening, deliberately and compositionally placing actions from different parts of life in succsession. They often address political subjects, e.g. the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Cold War, the Division of Germany or the rise of consumerism.

Due to the genre-crossing approach of Fluxus, the artworks assembled under this headline cover a great variety of very different pieces. Within Fluxus art we find remnants and traces of happenings and events that were not originally intended for a museum or exhibition. Examples on display at museum FLUXUS+ are, among others, smashed instruments, certificates and paper planes. Also objects like spoons, stampers, cardboard sculptures, and musical scores are on display. These, however, were manufactured as piecesof art in the traditional sense. Sound and video recordings of Fluxus happenings and events provide insight into the once very controversially discussed Fluxus performances.

To make the diversity of Fluxus art more comprehensible to the viewer, the exhibition is arranged in thematic groups. There are areas focusing on music/instruments, everyday objects in art and Fluxus concerts, to name just a few. Despite the careful arrangement in thematic groups, the collection may be challenging for visitors as fleeting events, humorous investigations of thought and perception patterns as well as the hidden poetry of everyday events and objects form the essence of Fluxus.

Fluxus artists in the collection

Eric Andersen Robert Filliou Alison Knowles Nam June Paik
Ay-O Yoko Ono George Maciunas Ben Patterson
Milan Knížák Dick Higgins Larry Miller Takako Saito
Henning Christiansen Joe Jones Ben Vautier Emmett Williams
Dieter Roth Tomas Schmit Jean-Jacques Lebel Joseph Beuys
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