Preface

Abstract

Opinions as to what Fluxus is or once was differ immensely. And not only among Fluxmen and Fluxwomen themselves, but also among those who have taken a critical interest in this avant-garde movement, whether from a scholarly or from an ideological point of view. In a certain way, the Fluxus project lives off these contradictions, which have crystallized in a variety of narratives about Fluxus.1 That Fluxus was an international movement with regional centers in the United States, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Japan remains undisputed. It was a heterogeneous group comprising about thirty artists with the most diverse motives for wanting to, or being able to, identify with Fluxus.2 The name “Fluxus” was coined in 1961 by the initiator of the movement and countercultural activist George Maciunas. He showed the word in a huge dictionary to Yoko Ono during an exhibition of hers at his AG Gallery in June of that year, but Ono thought it would be wrong to make it into a movement.3 The first mention of Fluxus in print was in a notice, written in Lithuanian and designed by Maciunas, advertising a lecture on new music and old instruments.4 The invitations sent out by the AG Gallery a short while later promised that the concert proceeds would be used to print a magazine to be called Fluxus.5 Maciunas chose this term as the title of an anthology which was never actually published as originally intended.6 There was no copyright on the word Fluxus.7 It was taken from the Latin verb, fluere, meaning to flow, stream, or to be in a state of flux, and had exactly the right dynamic associations to be able to bring together widely different positions. The word Fluxus draws attention to the essentially fluid and open-ended nature of art. Notwithstanding the onomatopoeia, the lexical ambiguity of “Fluxus” made this avant-garde movement sound quasi-scientific and old-fashioned. Maciunas the impresario sought to coordinate all the various artistic activities so that Fluxus would be more than just a “new wave” (Maciunas) which came and went like so many other -isms, but would instead grow into a worldwide art “current” that would drown out all other artistic movements.