WHAT IS FLUXUS?

WHAT IS A MUSEUM?

WHERE & WHEN?

ORACLE OF PAROS

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Socrates (above) said that the unexamined life is not worth living. So how should we examine our lives? By systematically using chance, to consider how we are connected? From July to September in the old Marble Factory, by the Yacht Harbour, Parikia, Paros, Fluxus Museum presents our first video installation, ‘The Oracle of Paros’.

George Maciunas: “we came out a bunch of jokers…” producing “art of no financial value”. From the first, Fluxus was a diverse and international group of artists, very unusual for its time, including: Mieko Shiomi, Charlotte Moorman, George Brecht, Ben Patterson, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Takako Saito, Alison Knowles, Ben Vautier, Allan Kaprow, Yvonne Rainer, Carolee Schneeman, Robert Filliou, Dieter Rot, Daniel Spoerri, Wolf Vostell, Dick Higgins, Joseph Beuys and Emmett Williams.

There were two groups of original Fluxus members: the first group was comprised of the nine who were at the inaugural Fluxus Festival in Wiesbaden. The second group included those who came into Fluxus in the years after, distinguished by innovative work that led the others to welcome them. 

A 1964 letter from Maciunas to Wolf Vostell presented a “List of Fluxus people (inner core)”: George Brecht, Ay-O (Takao Iijima), Willem de Ridder, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, Joe Jones, Shigeko Kubota, Takehisa Kosugi, George Maciunas, Ben Patterson, Mieko Shiomi, Ben Vautier, Robert Watts, Emmett Williams, La Monte Young.”

Additionally, there are numerous other artists who have also been affiliated to Fluxus: Philip Corner, Eric Andersen, Joseph Byrd, Bazon Brock, Philip Krumm, Al Hansen.

FLUXUS MUSEUM will be housing the Brunch Museum, a project by George Brecht and Stephan Kukowski, exhibited in London (JPL Fine Arts) in 1976, and in Cologne (Museum Ludwig, 2005) and in Barcelona (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2006)

WHAT IS FLUXUS?

Fluxus was the first group of artists in history to put public participation at the heart of their activity. It was also the first art group to be truly international and diverse.

“This wish of a protective space for any artist who experiments…it was not only the bringing together of the different mediums, but also to bring together people from different nations, from different races, we needed each other”

– Mary Bauermeister

Until Fluxus, all forms of art, music, theatre and poetry began with the premise of creators putting their creations in front of an audience to appreciate. True, appreciating the creation of another must always involve some form of engagement by the audience – but only in Fluxus was the engagement the main active ingredient of the work. The main influencers were Dada (especially Tzara & Duchamp), John Cage, as well as Heraclitus and Zen. The key figures of Fluxus include Yoko Ono, George Maciunas, George Brecht, Mieko Shiomi, Allan Kaprow, Yvonne Rainer, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Nam June Paik and Ben Vautier.

Fluxus was “an avant-garde born out of the spirit of music,” and “for the first time in the twentieth century, music played the leading part in an avant-garde movement that encompassed a variety of artistic media and strategies.”

– Cultural historian Andreas Huyssen

Fluxus was (from about 1960, and still is) a mix of performance, poetry, and music, and also objects that were games, puzzles and gags, always involving some kind of interactivity, often meditative, musing or amusing. Fluxus grew on the fringes of an art scene dominated by Pop Art. Although Fluxus was in many ways the opposite of Pop Art (being small, inconspicuous, quiet), people like Claes Oldenburg, Christo and Andy Warhol (especially in his movie-making) took part. The after-life of Fluxus now seems more potent and more generative.

Background:

‘What is Fluxus in 5 words or less?’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSN5HdRLhYM&ab_channel=vivdedada 

What was Fluxus? A Brief Guide to the Irreverent Groundbreaking Art Movement: https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/what-was-fluxus-54032

General, in-depth resource on Fluxus: https://artistsbooksandmultiples.blogspot.com/search/label/Fluxus

About Fluxus: https://www.britannica.com/art/Fluxus#ref1293518 

General, in-depth resource on all Fluxus artists: https://www.ubu.com/index.html 

About Fluxus: https://www.juanxucurator.com/time-travel-to-fluxus.html

Films, documentaries & interviews: https://www.eai.org/series/fluxus-and-happenings 

Fluxus is…(German): https://www.wiesbaden.de/kultur/bildende-kunst/kunstprojekte/fluxus/fluxus-ist.php

Fluxus: from Life to Art: https://medium.com/stephaniethrt/fluxus-from-life-to-art-dac5ab1cfa03

Fluxus artists:

Fluxus-Happenings Artists speaking in 1990: ​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UQFU-Nswro&ab_channel=artclassicnews

Artist manifestos: https://www.ubu.com/historical/gb/manifestos.pdf

Film:

FluxFilm anthology: https://www.ubu.com/film/fluxfilm.html

Fluxfilm Anthology (37 short films compiled by George Maciunas, which were shown as part of the events and happenings of the New York avant-garde and “celebrate the ephemeral humor of the Fluxus movement”): https://mubi.com/lists/fluxus-films 

Post-Fluxus:

Fluxlist, a post-Fluxus online community: http://fluxlist.blogspot.com/ 

‘Something Else – A Fluxus Semicentury’, presented by ​​Other Minds (‘a global New Music community where composers, students, and listeners discover and learn about fine innovative music by composers from all over the world’) in 2011 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Fluxus: https://www.otherminds.org/something-else-a-fluxus-semicentenary/

Documentation of the LA Phil and Getty Research Institute’s collaboration in exploring Fluxus through performances, installations, symposia and printed materials: https://fluxuslaphil.tumblr.com/ 

Before Crypto Art there was Fluxus: https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/06/29/before-crypto-art-there-was-fluxus-the-ultimate-avant-garde-movement-of-the-60s/

WHAT IS A MUSEUM?

The ancient idea of a Museum was not a storehouse of objects but a place to bring people together in contemplating and celebrating our creativity. Fluxus did not produce works of art so much as a thread of ideas about life. The Fluxus Museum is therefore a place to explore those ideas and be inspired about our lives and our unlimited capacity for invention. 

The Fluxus Museum is housed in the main section of the old Marble Factory by the yacht harbour of Parikia, on the Cycladic island of Paros. The Marble Factory was built in 1863 of local marble, to work on the famous Parian marble mined in the hills above. Parian marble is a fine-grained semi translucent pure-white and flawless marble most prized by ancient Greeks for making sculptures. Many of the greatest masterpieces of ancient sculpture were carved from it, including the Medici Venus, the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. 

Unfortunately the marble ran out not long after construction of this factory. We cannot develop the space until we receive planning permission from the Ephorate, and this process is underway. From 2022 the Fluxus Museum will include the cinema/theatre and the spacious forecourt of Archilochos, and we look forward to holding performances and festivals in these spaces, as well as continuing to host current community activities. 

With the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing,

Who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon,

And dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring

                         – Hesiod

Τι είναι το Μουσείο Fluxus?

Η αρχαία ιδέα ενός Μουσείου δεν ήταν μια αποθήκη αντικειμένων αλλά ένα μέρος για να φέρουμε τους ανθρώπους μαζί στο στοχασμό και τον εορτασμό της δημιουργικότητάς μας. Το Fluxus ήταν ένα κίνημα τέχνης / επιδόσεων της δεκαετίας του ’60 που δεν παρήγαγε έργα τέχνης τόσο ως νήμα ιδεών για τη ζωή. Το Μουσείο Fluxus είναι επομένως ένα μέρος για να εξερευνήσετε αυτές τις ιδέες και να εμπνευστείτε για τη ζωή μας και την απεριόριστη ικανότητά μας για εφεύρεση.

Το Μουσείο Fluxus στεγάζεται στο κύριο τμήμα του παλαιού μαρμάρου από το λιμάνι της Παροικιάς, στο κυκλαδίτικο νησί της Πάρου. Το εργοστάσιο μαρμάρου χτίστηκε το 1863 από τοπικό μάρμαρο, για να εργαστεί στο περίφημο μαρμάρινο Παριανό που εξορύσσεται στους παραπάνω λόφους. Το παριανό μάρμαρο είναι ένα λεπτόκοκκο ημιδιαφανές καθαρό λευκό και άψογο μάρμαρο, το οποίο εκτιμάται πολύ από τους αρχαίους Έλληνες για την κατασκευή γλυπτών. Πολλά από τα μεγαλύτερα αριστουργήματα της αρχαίας γλυπτικής ήταν σκαλισμένα από αυτό, όπως το Medici Venus, το Venus de Milo και η φτερωτή νίκη της Σαμοθράκης.

Δυστυχώς το μάρμαρο έμεινε λίγο μετά την κατασκευή αυτού του εργοστασίου. Δεν μπορούμε να αναπτύξουμε τον χώρο μέχρι να λάβουμε άδεια σχεδιασμού από την Εφορεία και αυτή η διαδικασία βρίσκεται σε εξέλιξη. Από το 2022 το Μουσείο Fluxus θα περιλαμβάνει τον κινηματογράφο / θέατρο και το ευρύχωρο προαύλιο, και ανυπομονούμε να διοργανώσουμε παραστάσεις και φεστιβάλ σε αυτούς τους χώρους.

Με τις Heliconian Muses ας αρχίσουμε να τραγουδούμε,

Ποιος κατέχει το μεγάλο και ιερό βουνό του Helicon,

Και χορέψτε στα μαλακά πόδια γύρω από το βαθύ μπλε της άνοιξης

                          – Ησίοδος

WHERE & WHEN?

From the start of July, to the end of September, at the back of the old ‘Marble Factory’ by the Yacht Harbour in Parikia, Paros, you will see our first installation: THE ORACLE OF PAROS.

How to use the Oracle of Paros

The Oracle of Paros is here for you 24/7

Look at the door into the building 

You will see a window in the door

Look in, see the words flashing by, too fast to read

You can only read them by taking a photo

So take one photo

Then go outside, round the corner to the other door, in the street

Again, the door has a window

Look through this second window, and take another photo

These two photos together

Make your unique message from The Oracle of Paros

(There are more than a hundred billion unique message combinations)

On any day, take only the one photo from each window!

Do not cheat the Oracle of Paros!

Of course the Oracle of Paros is not supernatural

It is designed to use chance as an aid to reflection:

To help you connect the inside and the outside, 

Above and below, left and right, behind and ahead, 

Same and other

>>>>>SEND US THE PHOTOS (FluxusMuseum@gmail.com) and you could win a 500 Euro Prize!<<<<<

Από τις αρχές Ιουλίου έως τα τέλη Σεπτεμβρίου, στο πίσω μέρος του παλιού «μαρμάρου εργοστασίου» από το λιμάνι γιοτ στην Παροικιά της Πάρου, θα δείτε την πρώτη μας εγκατάσταση: Ο ΠΡΑΚΤΟΛΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΡΟΥ.

Πώς να χρησιμοποιήσετε το Oracle of Paros

Το Oracle of Paros είναι εδώ για σας 24/7

Κοιτάξτε την πόρτα στο κτίριο

Θα δείτε ένα παράθυρο στην πόρτα

Κοιτάξτε μέσα, δείτε τις λέξεις που αναβοσβήνουν πολύ γρήγορα για να διαβάσετε

Μπορείτε να τα διαβάσετε μόνο τραβώντας μια φωτογραφία

Λάβετε λοιπόν μία φωτογραφία

Στη συνέχεια, βγείτε έξω, στη γωνία προς την άλλη πόρτα, στο δρόμο

Και πάλι, η πόρτα έχει ένα παράθυρο

Κοιτάξτε αυτό το δεύτερο παράθυρο και τραβήξτε μια άλλη φωτογραφία

Αυτές οι δύο φωτογραφίες μαζί

Δημιουργήστε το μοναδικό σας μήνυμα από το The Oracle of Paros

(Υπάρχουν περισσότεροι από εκατό δισεκατομμύρια μοναδικοί συνδυασμοί μηνυμάτων)

Κάθε μέρα, τραβήξτε μόνο μία φωτογραφία από κάθε παράθυρο!

Μην εξαπατήσετε το Μαντείο της Πάρου!

Φυσικά το Μαντείο της Πάρου δεν είναι υπερφυσικό

Έχει σχεδιαστεί για να χρησιμοποιεί την τύχη ως βοήθημα για προβληματισμό:

Για να σας βοηθήσουμε να συνδέσετε το εσωτερικό και το εξωτερικό,

Πάνω και κάτω, αριστερά και δεξιά, πίσω και μπροστά,

Ίδιο και άλλο