Fluxus by Chance

Fluxus emerged  at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s from the coming together of individuals who were not artists but became so through emulation. George Brecht was a chemist before becoming an artist. Robert Filliou was an economist before becoming an artist. La Monte Young was a musician before becoming an artist. Emmett Williams was an anthropologist before becoming an artist. George Maciunas was a graphic designer (and colour-blind) before becoming an artist, and so on. Their individual experiences offer a wealth of experimental potential to share, because Fluxus was a collective, cosmopolitan and participatory adventure. Through events and play, it sought to break down the boundaries and hierarchy between audience and artist. Maciunas came up with the name for this emerging group.

Fluxus comes from the word flux, and Fluxus activism spread through festivals, with the publication of a wide variety of magazines and editions, advocating art without works and without virtuosity, against the persistent over-valuation of the autographed art object, whose presumed excellence lay in its uniqueness, even after Duchamp. In this respect, Fluxus anticipated conceptual art.

The exhibition extends to the Dada antecedent and some of its natural heirs such as Jonathan Monk and Claude Closky. It also pays tribute to Huang Yong Ping, a self-proclaimed Dadaist, and to Geng Jianyi, an influential professor at the China Academy of Fine Arts who, at least telepathically, could not have been unaware of Fluxus.