[rohrpost] Saturday, December 20th, 8 pm

[Sparwasser HQ]

Saturday, December 20th, 8 pm


Sparwasser HQ at the building


the building, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14A, Berlin 10249 DE


Presentation by Peter van der Meijden

Sparwasser HQ Theorist-In-Residency in November-December 2008

Peter van der Meijden (Amsterdam, 1969) is an art historian, publicist  
and lecturer with degrees from the universities of Amsterdam (1993)  
and Essex (1995). During the last five years he has been associated  
with the University of Copenhagen, first as external lecturer, then as  
Ph.D. fellow. His Ph.D. deals with interactions within the Fluxus  
network in Germany and surrounding countries in the period 1962-1966.'  
Sparwasser HQ has invited Peter to reflect on possible parrallels  
between Fluxus and contemporary art. A public exchange will take place  
on December 20. at 8 PM.


EXCRETA FLUXORUM

'Proposed preliminary contents of NYC fluxus in Nov.: (…) Banquet on  
last day of Nov. giving distinguished guests food prepared with strong  
enema producing medicines – ending Nov. fluxus with a grand fluxus'.  
The human intestine is between 7,5 and 8,5 metres long. It takes a  
sprig of parsley just over an hour to cover that distance, while a  
piece of pork can take the best part of five hours. George Maciunas'  
idea for a Fluxus banquet, proposed in Fluxnewsletter no. 6 (6 April  
1963), would have shortened these times considerably. Maciunas wanted  
his events to be quick and recognizable. He did not want to have to  
wait for his 'fluxus' to happen, but insisted to administer his  
artistic enema himself, so Flux could happen in his own time.

In many ways, this approach is typical for George Maciunas and his  
idea of Fluxus. At the other end of the spectrum we find artists such  
as Alison Knowles, whose Proposition from 1962 simply reads 'Make a  
Salad' and who instigated a long collective performance surrounding  
the consumption of buttermilk, soup and tuna sandwiches (The Identical  
Lunch, 1968). For Maciunas, Fluxtime is something that can be  
manipulated with, while for Knowles, it takes as long as it takes. Her  
work, like that of many other artists associated with Fluxus, is not a  
flux and a flush, but a constantly fluctuating exchange between person  
and object, never complete, always developing.

The presentation, Excreta Fluxorum, takes the dynamic relationship  
between the flux-and-flush and the fluctuating exchange as its  
starting point for a (re-)consideration of Fluxus and its reception,  
with a focus on the ways in which this type of artistic activity/ 
activism may be – and has been – co-opted, and possibilities for  
resistance to reification and spectacularisation that may still be  
present and valid today. Taking images of food and the consumption of  
food as its starting point, it is a rambling pilgrimage along the  
digestive tract of history – not backwards, seeking legitimation of  
the present in the past – which would be regurgitatio fluxorum – but  
forwards, exploring each twist that is met underway and  
circumnavigating each potential obstacle.

***


Saturday, December 20th, 10 pm till the last person leaves...

E-flux PARTY
djs: Dieter Roelstraete, Annika Larsson and others.

For further information please contact Magdalena Magiera at magdalena at e-flux.com

the building
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14A
Berlin 10249 DE
T: 030 28 04 79 73

the building is open Thursday through Saturday, 12 – 6 pm (e-flux  
reading room/video rental)

***


this mail is send out by Sparwasser HQ

Sparwasser HQ Membership

In order to improve the legal status of SPARWASSER HQ, we now attempt  
to fulfill the formal conditions to be an Art Assosiation/ in German  
Kunstverein. For this we need to increase the number of members and we  
encourage our network of friends and supporters to sign up for a  
membership.  (http://www.sparwasserhq.de/Index/mitglied/Sparwasser_Mitgliederflyer.pdf 
)

info: mail at sparwasserhq.de


Sparwasser HQ wishes you the best for 2009.