Tim wrote:
>I gather that in europe the artists just kept
on going and didn't bother with what they understood as an American
mistake. Is that the case, or
is it just what i gather?<
I think so but not necessarily continuing to use the Fluxus name all the
time. Ben Vautier seems incredibly successful these days especially with his
line of multiples (toothbrushes, sock, wallets, berets) in the novelty shops
of many of Europe's capital cities. Ben criticises Fluxus but still
identifies with it,
see his website http://www.ben-vautier.com/
Ben Vautier is the biggest (commercially) I can think of. There's Emmett
Williams also who still performs and identifies with Fluxus in Berlin.
Daniel Spoerri? Maybe Allen Bukoff knows his view as he met him recently. I
don't know really how the organiser problem was solved after Maciunas's
death...I think Dick Higgins and Ken Friedman did a lot to still invite new
people into Fluxus and organise but Dick died as you know and Ken doesn't
appear to do the organising he used to in this regard. Of course the future
of Fluxus is up for grabs in many ways. Of course this is my view as an
observer, I hope others can offer more insights about this.
You also wrote:
>Well, actually, it's mostly the Silvermans and Jon Hendricks who
hold to the Maciunas-only
line, and they have a good reason to do so. <
Well their money is creating Fluxus however they wish it to be and maybe it
is in the interests of a lot of Fluxus artists to go along with it as it
drives their prices up. What Fluxus struggles with today I think is
organisation...the bringing people together for collaboration/performance
etc. and then sufficient documentation of that to show that Fluxus is still
living in the same sense as it did originally. There is no reason why this
shouldn't happen since today there are more intermedia artists than ever
before and still a good deal of interest in Fluxus.
cheers,
Sol.
