Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life


Fluxus is a project organized by George Maciunas exploring and redefining the meaning of art in society.  A group of artists created a series of kits that are especially interesting to me.

 

What is art good for? This was a central question for Fluxus organizer George Maciunas, who devoted his life to analyzing the role of art throughout history and to proposing what it might be good for. For Maciunas, art at its best is part of the social process, as it was from prehistoric times to the Renaissance (no. 2). In modern times, it has become imbued with a unique aura and seen as something to be evaluated by specialists and collected by museums. Fluxus artists took up the task of re-embedding art within everyday life, picking up where Dada and Russian Constructivist artists left off after World War I. Maciunas and Fluxus colleagues George Brecht, Yoko Ono, and Robert Filliou observed:
Promote NON ART REALITY to be fully grasped by all peoples, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals. (George Maciunas, 1963)

The natural state of life and mind is complexity. At this point, what art can offer . . . is an absence of complexity, a vacuum through which you are led to a state of complete relaxation of mind. After that you may return to the complexity of life again, it may not be the same, or it may be, or you may never return, but that is your problem. (Yoko Ono, 1966)

 

Fluxus Resources:

Fluxus Digital Library @ U. Illinois

Antidiets of the Avant Garde

Fluxus Films

 Fluxus and The Essential Questions of Life

Modern Versions of Fluxus


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