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The Fluxus Community Today
Cecil Touchon
Fluxus, since many people still have never even heard of it, continues
to have the ability to surprise. But the advantage is, most people have
been influenced by the ideas or have experienced Fluxus even though
they don't realize it. There is more
subconscious precedent in the back of people's minds today than there
used to be in the past which provides resonance and people have the
ability to connect with it even if they are not sure why. So there is
often an almost guilty recognition among some that they 'love this kind
of stuff' even if there is something of a disconnect. For artists this
disconnect comes from the belief that Fluxus is a historical event – a
closed circle - that is long over and do not realize that it continues
to live and grow through the present generation of practitioners and
that they could be a part of it in the present if they feel the
connection.
Regardless of what Fluxus ever was or is now or shall be in the future,
it is first and foremost a community of people who communicate and work
with each other in the context of Fluxus – of Fluxus as an attitude, as
a tradition, as a trajectory, as a point of view. Fluxus has always
been experimental and has always challenged boundaries – famously, the
boundaries between high and low art or the boundaries between one
medium and another and ultimately the perceived boundaries between art
and life.
Therefore, it should be no surprise that Fluxus artists do not
recognize any boundary between the past and the present or between
insiders and outsiders. The Fluxus community today is a self
organizing, porous organization. Membership in
this community is based on interacting with other members of the
community and participating in group projects. The more one
participates, the more of a core member one becomes. It is that simple.
It is a matter of interconnectedness. That is what makes any community.
If
virtually anyone could become a part of the Fluxus community, and
anyone can, then the question might then arise, “But is what all of
these people are doing really Fluxus?” That seems like a good question.
It could be suggested that the recognition of what is Fluxus would need
to emerge from the activities of the members of this community and the
ensuing dialog around those activities. As a group dedicated to Fluxus,
it is inevitable that certain things will come to be regarded as Fluxus
and many other things will not. It is really a matter of consensus
within the group. If the group remains open and experimental then what
is Fluxus amid what they are doing will be recognized and favored as
such – everything else will not be. Since Fluxus is open by nature, new
ideas can and will emerge, these new ideas will find their way into the
canon of Fluxus if they are in accord with the general nature of Fluxus
as accepted by the community thus allowing for change and
transformation
which are, in themselves inherently Fluxus.
During the founder’s time, George Maciunas was the ‘chairman’, the man
in charge of
deciding what was Fluxus and what wasn’t and he often changed his mind.
In his absence, the Fluxus community is not restricted by the
limitations of a single individual’s vision. As an experimental idea
Fluxus at its core, is democratic by nature rather than hierarchical.
When looking at the definition for hierarchy there is a relevant quote:
"it has been said that only a hierarchical society with a leisure class
at the top can produce works of art". It could be said that Fluxus
challenges that view in that works of art can be made by anyone in any
society depending on how one defines what constitutes works of art.
In
Fluxus, power is no longer invested in a single individual or small
group of insiders deciding what or who is or isn't Fluxus. The power
is,
rather, invested in the community. Each individual in the community is
in charge of his own domain and responsible for his own place in the
network without approval from any ‘superior'. This is cleverly alluded
to in a recent work by Keith Buchholz who, using a well known Maciunas
work: NO SMOKING, removed the ‘S’ making a new work: NO MO KING meaning
'no more king'.
Fluxus today, equipped with the examples set by
Maciunas and the other seminal members, has the capacity to grow and
expand according to the ‘Laws of Fluxus’ established through precedence
rather than the decrees and judgments of an individual authority. Are
you a member of the Fluxus community? You ought to be.
Cecil Touchon, Director
The
Ontological Museum
http://ontologicalmuseum.org
Copyright © 2011 Cecil Touchon
reposted with permission
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