Activating Fluxus, Expanding Conservation

List of Contributors

List of Figures

Preface

On Modes of Activity and Activation: An Introduction
Hanna B. Hölling and Josephine Ellis

I. Conserving, Curating and Archiving Fluxus: Politics, Challenges and Strategies

1. Fluxus Forms of Activation - Natilee Harren

2. Ken Friedman: I Loved the Work and Wanted to Make it Visible—a Conversation with Hanna B. Hölling, Aga Wielocha and Josephine Ellis

3. Fluxus Fetish: Conservation, Desire and Affect - Hanna B. Hölling

4. Displays in Flux: Multisensory Fluxus and Decolonial Display Practices - Inbal Strauss

5. “... Treating with a Flux”: How the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Has Evolved Stewardship Practice at The Museum of Modern Art - Danielle Johnson, Kate Lewis and Peter Oleksik

II. Multiplication and Reinterpretation: The Many Lives of Fluxus Art

6. Daniel Spoerri’s Logic of the Multiple and the Continuum of Active Matter - Josephine Ellis

7. Reinterpreting Ay-Ō’s Tactile Boxes Through Touchless Haptics in Ay-Ō’s Happy Rainbow Hell (2023) - Kit Brooks

8. Almost-Replica: Robert Filliou’s The Futile Box (1977) - Émilie Parendeau

9. Continuing Intermedia Chart (1995): An Activation - Patrizio Peterlini

10. Mieko Shiomi: On Ever-Changing Appearance—A Conversation with Sally Kawamura

III. Fluxus Narratives: Storytelling, Memory and Transmission

11. Intermedial Translations: Storytelling Fluxus - Aga Wielocha

12. Ann Noël: All We Need is to Keep a Sense of Humor—A Conversation with Hanna B. Hölling, Aga Wielocha and Josephine Ellis

13. Eric Andersen: On Change, Confusion and Amazement—A Conversation with Hanna B. Hölling, Aga Wielocha and Josephine Ellis

14. “I have Confidence in You”: Activating Eric Andersen’s Opus 51 - Rasmus Holmboe and Magnus Kaslov

15. Bengt af Klintberg: On Fluxus, Folklore and Collecting Butterflies—A Conversation with Hanna B. Hölling, Aga Wielocha and Josephine Ellis

IV. Preserving the Fluxus Network: Continuities, Connections and Evolutions  

16. Now That You’re Ready for the Real Thing - Hannah B Higgins

17. Philip Corner: On Creativity as Discovery—A Conversation with Hanna B. Hölling, Aga Wielocha and Josephine Ellis

18. Fluxus East and the Dead Letter - Maggie Hire

19. FLUXUS.GRAM - Johannes M. Hedinger and Marcus Gossolt

20. Musée d’art Naïf and Culture - Ben Vautier

Index

Biography

Hanna B. Hölling is research professor and principal investigator at the Bern University of the Arts, where she leads research in her area of expertise. She is also a senior fellow at Collegium Helveticum/ETH Zurich and an honorary fellow in the Department of History of Art at University College London. 

Aga Wielocha is a researcher, collection care professional and conservator specializing in modern and contemporary art, with a PhD from the University of Amsterdam, awarded in 2021. Her doctoral research, conducted as part of the project New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art (NACCA), explored the lives and futures of contemporary art within museum collections, particularly focusing on works that are variable and unfold over time.

Josephine Ellis is a PhD candidate in the Studies in the Arts (SINTA) program of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Bern and the Bern Academy of the Arts. Her research interests are situated at the intersections of histories and philosophies of art, science and conservation. She received her BA in history from the University of Durham and her MA in history of art from University College London.