Dear Fluxlist Friends, I meant to tell you this last week but was waiting for any further information.
You will no doubt be sad to hear that Professor Nicholas Zurbrugg died a couple of weeks ago from a massive cerebral haemorrhage. Many of you will be familiar with Nick's work from his essay in the Fluxus Reader entitled "'A Spirit of Large Goals': Fluxus, Dada and Postmodern Cultural Theory at Two Speeds ". He was also a Fluxlist subscriber although a quiet one (which was not surprising for such a busy man). I first met Nick two years ago at the "In the Footsteps of Fluxshoe" conference that he organised at DeMontfort University here in England. I found him to be a wonderful man, full of energy, his enthusiasm for the avant-garde seemed to know no bounds: He spent most of his time at the conference running around ensuring that everyone else was having a good time. In fact Nick's plan was to organise some kind of avant-garde conference at DeMontfort each autumn. Only a few weeks ago I was wondering what he would do this year, I never thought that last year would be the last. I have great memories of the events I attended and great memories of Nick. Although I didn't know him all that well he was always very friendly towards me and after our first meeting we kept in touch via occasional e-mails. Nick's death is a very great loss, not only for his family and friends but for those involved in avant-garde activity who have directly benefited from contact with Nick and attending the events he has organised (including many before he came to DeMontfort) and reading his work. His presence will be greatly missed. Those of you who knew him or have enjoyed his work please take a moment to raise a glass in tribute to Nick's memory. If you didn't know Nick and you'd like to know a bit more about the work he did, have a look at the following pages: the research centre that he ran at DeMontfort: http://www.cta.dmu.ac.uk/HSS/Research/Research%20Centres/Centre%20for%20Cont emporary%20Arts/ his thoughts on the work of Enzo Minarelli http://www.iii.it/3vitre/saggi/ezurbrugg.html an essay "Postmodernity, M�taphore manqu�e, and the Myth of the Trans-avant-garde" http://substance.arts.uwo.ca/48/zurbrugg.html and he's also listed in Artpool's Fluxus Bibliography here http://www.artpool.hu/Fluxusbibliography/Zurbrugg.html He did a great many things. cheers, Sol.
