ROBERT FILLIOU 'The Secret of Permanent Creation'
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ROBERT FILLIOU ‘The Secret of Permanent Creation’ 13.10.2016–22.01.2017 In the coming years, M HKA will dedicate a series of exhibitions to key figures of experimental art in the second half of the twentieth century, all of them also important presences in Antwerp in the 1960s and ’70s. We begin with the French poet, playwright, artist and thinker Robert Filliou (1926–1987). This autumn, we mount the first comprehensive survey of his visual oeuvre in Belgium, with more than 100 original works and multiples from public and private collections across Europe. More radical, more fundamentally provocative, but also subtler and gentler than most of his contemporaries and peers, Filliou should be a household name for a large audience. With this exhibition we want to show today’s and tomorrow’s viewers that Filliou is not just one of the most influential artists of the recent past. He is a voice for our time, speaking of the political and poetic economy, of curiosity and research as more than ‘a privilege for those who already know’, of conviviality and play but also of loneliness as a productive and even desirable state. Filliou is often associated with Fluxus but never ‘belonged’ to this or any other movement or group, although he worked closely with friends such as the artists Daniel Spoerri and Dieter Roth, the composer and artist George Brecht, the poet Emmett Williams or the architect and artist Joachim Pfeufer. Together with his collaborators – first among them his wife Marianne Staffeldt Filliou – he coined many concepts and immediately enacted them in his work, among them the Eternal Network (of like-minded people all over the world); the Genial Republic (whose territory can be claimed by anyone at any time); the Principle of Equivalence (a direct attack on the primacy of aesthetic judgment in Western culture: “It doesn’t matter if something is well made, badly made or not made at all”); Teaching and Learning as Performance Arts (the title of a book from 1970) and, perhaps most importantly, Permanent Creation. It was Marianne who once remarked: “You’re artists when you create. But when you stop, you’re not artists anymore.” Filliou realised the need to break with the conventional understanding of creativity as something exclusive and out-of-this-world. One of his multiples bears the inscription, ‘Art is what makes life more interesting than art.’ “The Secret of Permanent Creation: Whatever you’re thinking; think something else. Whatever you’re doing; do something else. The Absolute Secret of Permanent Creation: Desire nothing, decide nothing, choose nothing, be aware of yourself, stay awake, calmly seated, do nothing.” If this sounds like Zen Buddhism, it is no coincidence. Filliou had first-hand knowledge of the Far East. He trained as a political economist in the US after the war and was part of the UN team that authored ‘A Five-Year Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of South Korea in 1953’, before quitting this career to live the precarious life of the free spirit. And his premature death interrupted a retreat to a Buddhist monastery meant to last three years, three months and three days. The Secret of Permanent Creation is not just a tribute to Robert Filliou’s art and thinking but also a reminder of his close relations with Belgium. He had two solo exhibitions at Wide White Space Gallery in Antwerp, in 1971 and 1972, and collaborated for many years with Editions Lebeer-Hossmann, an art publishing house in Brussels. His work can be found in several Belgian private collections as well as in the M HKA collection. The exhibition is organised by Anders Kreuger, Senior Curator at M HKA, in consultation with Paris-based freelance curator Cécile Barrault. M HKA thanks all the lenders for their generosity, not least the Robert Filliou Estate, managed by the Peter Freeman gallery in Paris. The catalogue, co-published by M HKA, Mousse Publishing and Editions Lebeer- Hossmann, is based on a previously unpublished long interview that Irmeline Lebeer made with Robert Filliou in 1976. PRESS PREVIEW 13.10.2016 - 11 am OPENING 13.10.2016 - 8.30 pm ARTWORKS IN THIS EXPO 1960s 1. L’Immortelle mort du monde (The Deathless Dying of the World), 1960/1967. Multiple: print on cardboard, 72.5 × 55.8 cm, published by Something Else Press (Dick Higgins), New York. Collection Stiftung Maria und Walter Schnepel, Budapest. 2. I comme dans Poisson (I as in Fish), 1961. Plywood, gear wheel, coat hangers, 147 × 42.5 × 3.2 cm. Collection LWL – Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster/Foundation Collection Cremer 3. Une bouteille de vin rêvant d’être une bouteille de lait (A Bottle of Wine Dreaming It Is a Bottle of Milk), 1961. Mixed media, 83 × 62 × 13 cm. Collection Mrs D Robelin, France 4. Poï Poï Bottles, 1961–1970. Multiple: wooden case, two beer bottles labelled ‘Poï Poï’ in positive and negative, ruler, roll of paper, elastic bands, 28.5 × 27.5 × 10.5 cm, published by Eat-Art Galerie (Daniel Spoerri), Düsseldorf. Collection Andersch, Neuss 5. 3 Poems, 1961–1971. Collage, ink, wire and other materials on plywood, 218 × 148 × 5 cm. Collection Stiftung Maria und Walter Schnepel, Budapest 6. Eternal Network, 1961–1973. Paper labels on chipboard, 11.9 × 110 cm. Collection Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne Métropole 7. Four-Dimensional Space-Time Continuum, 1962. Multiple: poem and layers of newsprint, 30.6 × 20.5 cm, published by KWY, Paris. Collection Stiftung Maria und Walter Schnepel, Budapest 8. Un poète : 22 choses mal faites ou perdues (parmi tant d’autres) de haut (A Poet: 22 Things Badly Made or Lost (Among Many Others) from High Up), 1962. Mixed media on cardboard, 42 × 180 × 13 cm. Collection Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, formerly Collection Hahn, Cologne, acquired in 1978 9. Faim = fin de la faim (Hunger = The End of Hunger), 1962/1975/1978. Pastel, glued papers and fabric on canvas with eyelets, 106 × 268.5 cm. Estate of Robert Filliou & Peter Freeman Inc., New York/Paris 10. Danse-poème collectif (à performer à deux, chacun(e) tournant une roue) (Collective Dance-Poem (To Be Performed by Two Players, Each Turning One Wheel)), 1962/1994. Replica: 2 metal wheels, diameter 64 cm. Estate of Robert Filliou & Peter Freeman Inc., New York/Paris 11. 3 × 13, 1963. Wooden panel, cardboard, plastic numbers, 14.9 × 10.9 × 2.4 cm. Collection Andersch, Neuss 12. Le (ou la) Poïpoïdrome à espace-temps réel, prototype 00 (The Poïpoïdrome in Reeal Space-Time, Prototype 00), with Joachim Pfeufer, 1963–1975. Wooden model, 4.9 × 17.3 × 17.3 cm. Collection Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon 13. La Carte n’est pas le territoire (The Map Is Not the Territory), with Daniel Spoerri, 1964. Mixed media, metal mailbox, 25.7 × 18.2 × 5.8 cm. Collection Eric Decelle, Brussels 14. Ne pas avoir les yeux dans la poche (Not Having Your Eyes in the Pocket), with Daniel Spoerri, 1964–1969. Wooden box with lid, photograph, plastic, mounted on painted wood, 45.5 × 50 × 12 cm. Collection Andersch, Neuss 15. Ample Food for Stupid Thought, 1965. Multiple: 96 postcards in wooden box, each 12.8 × 17.8 cm, published by Something Else Press (Dick Higgins), New York/Cologne/ Paris. Collection Stiftung Maria und Walter Schnepel, Budapest 16. Je disais à Marianne (I Was Telling Marianne), 1965. Multiple: box with postcards, 28.2 × 28.2 × 3.8 cm, published by MAT MOT (Karl Gerstner, Daniel Spoerri), Cologne. Collection Stiftung Maria und Walter Schnepel, Budapest 17. Phantomas No.50, 1965. Journal, 22.2 × 14.5 cm, published by Théodore König, Joseph Noiret, Marcel and Gabriel Piqueray, Brussels. Collection Andersch, Neuss 18. The Pink-Spaghetti Handshake, with Emmett Williams, 1965. Multiple: gouache on paper, 27 × 21 cm, published by the artists. Collection M HKA, Antwerp 19. Non-école de Villefranche (Non-School of Villefranche), with George Brecht and Jean- Pierre Walfard, ca 1965. Letterhead, print on paper, 26.9 × 21 cm. Collection Andersch, Neuss 20. Untitled, 1965–1966. Resin, measuring tapes, 29.5 × 39.5 cm. Collection Karen Moller, Paris 21. Fluxdust, 1966. Multiple: plastic box with dust collected by Filliou, 12 × 9.4 × 1 cm, published by Fluxus (George Macˇiu nas),̄ New York. Collection Andersch, Neuss 22. 8 Measurement Poems, with Emmett Williams, 1966. 8 wooden sticks of different length with various objects: 191 × 7.5 × 3.5 cm; 180.5 × 5 × 8 cm; 182 × 6 × 3 cm; 181 × 4.5 × 3.5 cm; 175 × 4.5 × 4.5 cm; 92 × 4.5 × 8 cm; 77.5 × 6 × 5.5 cm; 79.5 × 5 × 6.5 cm. Private Collection, Brussels 23. Exposition intuitive (Intuitive Exhibition), 1966/2016. 10 photographic enlargements of telegrams, on wooden stretchers, each 65 × 92 cm, some of them with tools. Collection M HKA, Antwerp 24. A Filliou Sampler, 1967. Book, 21 × 14 cm, published by Something Else Press (Dick Higgins), New York. Private collection, Brussels 25. La Cédille qui sourit : offerings inattendus (The Smiling Cedilla: Unexpected Offerings), with George Brecht et al., 1967. Poster for Christmas exhibition at Galerie Jacqueline Ranson, Paris, 74 × 33 cm. Collection Andersch, Neuss 26. Fluxhair, 1967. Multiple: plastic box with human hair collected by Filliou, 12 × 9.3 × 1 cm, published by Fluxus (George Macˇiu nas),̄ New York. Collection Andersch, Neuss 27. Games at the Cedilla, or the Cedilla Takes Off, with George Brecht, 1967. Book, 20.5 × 14 × 2 cm, published by Something Else Press (Dick Higgins), New York/Toronto/Frankfurt am Main. Collection M HKA, Antwerp 28. Hand Show, 1967.