Bengt af Klintberg

Fluxus Games and Contemporary Folklore: on the Non-Individual Character of Art

(Paper read at the symposium In the Spirit of Fluxus at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, February 12-13, 1993)

j(?1/i I

Offprint from Konsthistorisk Tidskrift Vol. LXll:2, 1993 Fluxus Games and Contemporary Folklore: on the Non-Individual Character of Fluxus Art

BENGT AF KLINTBERG

The similarities and differences between the most distinctive and important achievement. work of individual Fluxus artists have been They are characterized by such a striking simi­ much debated. The views expressed are diver­ larity that it is legitimate to talk about an art gent, to say the least. The artists themselves form with a conscious non-individual character. stress their indi vi dualism. Eric Andersen, for It is, as a matter of fact, difficult for a person example, has claimed that the only uniting factor who sees photo documentation of these early is that the Fluxus artists happened to appear pieces or reads or hears descriptions of them te together in public at a certain time. At a press decide which one of the artists is the originator. conferencc held in Copenhagen in connection has recently collected a great with the arrangement "ExceUent 1992" several deal of them in The Fluxus Performance Work­ of the artists present protested against being book (Friedman 1990b ). Something that strikes calJcd a group. the reader is that this volume from 1990 is ac­ There are, nevertheless, Fluxus artists as well tually the first attempt at collecting scores of as art critics who see many uniting factors in the performance pieces by all artists who have been works which have been presented as Fluxus art. associated with Fluxus, scores which belong - has distinguished nine criteria of with some few exceptions - to the sixties. What Fluxus art (Higgins 1991, 33ff), and his list has was published before was scores by single au­ been expanded into twelve criteria by Ken thors, such as 's Water Yam Friedman (Friedman 1990a, 329ff). The time (1963), Dick Higgins's Jefferson's Birthday does not permit me to discuss their lists in detail. (1964), 's (1964), and H ere I confine myself to mention those qualities pamphlets in the Something Else Press series that I have found most characteristic of Fluxus Great Bear Pamphlets (1966-69). Many impor­ art: it is , it is experimental and re­ tant scores are missing from The Fluxus Per­ search-oriented (thereby often using chance as formance Workbook, but it still overwhelms the an artistic method), and it favours simplicity and reader with its vitality and wit. playfulness. The reason why I have chosen to take up In this presentation I choose to disregard in­ similarities between the Fluxus performance dividual features and focus on similarities. pieces and folklore is that I have been active as a Therefore I will not talk about art works shown folklorist exactly as long as I have been involved at exhibitions during recent decades, where the in Fluxus. In the Fall of 1962 I lived a double life artists' personal modes of expression have be­ in . In daytime I worked as an assist­ come more and more obvious. Instead, I want to ant at a folklore archive, researching old folk concentrate on the performance pieces of the beliefs and legends. In the evening I devoted early, collective years, which I regard as Fluxus' myself to Happenings and other artistic experi-

Konsthistorisk Tidskrifi LX/l Hiifte 2, 1993 116 Bengt af Klintberg

from left: Staffan Oh.on and Bengt af Kl intberg performing the latter's Alternative to Another Raulesnake ac th Fluxus concert in Di.isseldorf, February 3, l 963. Photo: Manfred Leve. ments at a small theatre together with Staffan Fluxus concerts in Diisscldorf at the end of Jan Olzon, who later became a theatre director. uary the next year. The journey took a longe At the end of November I came to Copenha­ time than expected and we arrived at the Kunst gen to see Danish fo lklorist colleagues. One of akademie in Diisseldorf just in time for the sec them gave me a free ticket to the Nikolai church, ond concert. It was an explosion of creativ where several fluxus concerts had already taken energy that I will never forger. When Dick Hig place. She warned me: it is something very gins and told me that the strange, some kind of Dada music, many people planned to visit Stockholm one month later, w have become upset and left the concerts. I went decided to give three evenings with Fluxus com there and experienced an evening very different positions in Stockholm. The concerts took plac from those Happenings I had seen and per­ at the Alley Theatre on March 1-3, and all per formed. The Happenings were often loosely formers except Dick and Alison were Swede: structured, expressionistic pieces based on mate­ among others Staffan Olzon, myself and Ca rial effects. This was another kind of work Fredrik Reuterswaerd. sent rooted in music, more sophisticated, with a clear telegram to Dick, forbidding him to use th structure and playful humour. I became fasci­ name Fluxus when not all artists were presen nated and afterwards made contact with the art­ but the poster was already printed. Carl Fredri ists, which had as a consequence that Staffan Reuterswaerd wanted to participate under O lzon and I were invited to participate at the pseudonym, Charles Lavendel ( = Lavender Fluxus Games and Contemporary Folklore 117

ALLETEA TER N 0 NARVAVAGE N 7

happenings danger music xus

Dick Higgins - Ali~on Knowles

framfor kompositioner av Higgin .. Knowles. George Brecht

;nake at the AJ Han en, . La Montey Yo ung m.fl.

nd of Jan­ Svenska bidra ~ av bl.a. Lars Gu nnar Bodin. Ben~t Emil John­ i< a longer :he Kunst­ son ·Benrrt af Kliotberir, Charles LavendeL, Staffan Olzon ' t" 0 )T the sec­ >f creative Dick H ig- that they Forestiii Ini 11gar: h later, we Fr<>dag l mar:". kl. 20. uxus com­ took place Lorda!!.' 2 mar:-; kl. 20. '· nd all pcr­ Sondag :~ m a r s kl. M. re Swedes, f and Carl mas sent a to use the re present, Hiljcurr i tcatnn- "k a·~ a I\ ~ rim· arl Fredrik Entn· frau -1: - mar fort• vnrj~· fiircstiilloinll e under a Lavender).

Poster from the Fluxus concerts in Stockholm, March t- 3, 1963. 118 Bengt af Klintberg

Bengt af Klintbcrg: Orange Event No. 3 or How to Transform a Ball into a Straight Line. 1963, revised 1991.

a Northern outpost of Fluxus, participating His contribution was that he poured out a bottle when Fluxus artists came to Stockholm to give of lavender perfume in the auditorium during concerts. Between these visits I devoted most of the first evening and then disappeared. my time to research into Swedish folklore. Later the same month I went to Oslo and by This background has made me aware of the chance got Swedish composer Sten Hanson as similarity between the Fluxus performance piec­ my travel companion. We organized a concert es of the first collective years and folklore. I am with Fluxus compositions for students at the by no means the first to notice that Fluxus art­ University of Oslo. The reaction was vehement; ists have a predilection for games, jokes, gags, I had to leave the concert hall through a back and rituals - all wellknown folklore genres. exit and returned to Stockholm by train the Dick Higgins has observed the close affinity same night. The following years I functioned as Fluxus Games and Contemporary Folklore 119 __.

Yoko Ono at the exhibition Ubi Flux11s ibi motus in Venice 1990. Photo: Benge af Klintberg.

between Fluxus scores and the rituals of so­ stitutional value. - It strives for the monostruc­ called primitive people, presented by ] erome tural and nontheatrical qualities of simple nat­ Rothenberg in his comprehensive anthology ural event, a game or a gag. It is the fusion of Technicians of the Sacred. When taken out of Spike Jones, Vaudeville, gag, children's games their usually sacred context these texts are, ac­ and Duchamp" (1965, quoted from Hendricks cording to Dick Higgins, "so close to Fluxus 1981 , 9). To me it is striking how close this pieces as to the nearly indistinguishable from definition comes to a definition of a contempo­ them" (Higgins 1991, 36). When Dick published rary fo lklore genre. The only thing missing is :d 1991. my collection of eventS, The Cursive Scandina­ the most typical quality of folklore: the ano­ vian Salve, in his Great Bear Pamphlet series, he nymity of the originator. It would have been micipating advised me to include some texts from my an­ interesting to know how Maciunas would have >I m to give thology of Swedish magic formulae. They are looked on the possibility that the Fluxus pieces :ed most of found under the title "Three Magic Events". become eventually detached from their origina­ lklore. It is worthwhile to take a folkloristic look at tors and live on as an orally transmitted contem­ ,.· are of the George Maciunas's by now classical definition porary genre! nance piec­ of what he labels "Fluxus Art-Amusement", At this symposium there are participants .klore. I am where he says that "anything can be art and much more expert on Fluxus chronology than I Fluxus art­ anyone can do it. Therefore, art-amusement am. Therefore I will not try to elucidate in detail iokes, gags, must be simple, amusing, unpretentious, con­ the birth of what I refer to as "Fluxus games" in ore genres. cerned with insignificances, require no skill or the title of this paper. By this I mean scores of osc affinity : Cl'Jntless rehearsals, have no commodity or in- principally monostructural performance pieces, 120 Bengt af Klintberg

"events" with George Brecht's term. Such sodes or stanzas are misunderstood or forgot­ scores first appeared a few years before Fluxus ten, others are improved. Among chose details had been established. Peter Frank writes: that disappear are all traits which constitute an "These verbal scores proposed simple activities individual style. as art. They were deliberately distanced in their We can find a similar process of filtration relatively elemental gcsturality from Happen­ during the 30 years that Fluxus artists have per­ ings and avant-garde theater" and he mentions formed their pieces in concerts. The Fluxus rep­ that they were written as far back as 1959 by ertoire now consists of pieces which share a Yoko Ono, , George Brecht, general non-individual character. Those pieces and many other Fluxus members (Frank 1990, which have disappeared often were so personal 436). that other Fluxus artists could not perform The earliest dated score that I have found in them. From the Fluxus festival in Di.isseldorf I "The Fluxus Performance Workbook" is Yoko have a strong memory of Joseph Bcuys's Sib­ Ono's "Lighting Piece" from 1955 (a dating erian Symphony, in which a dead hare was hang­ which must be taken with strong reservations ing from a blackboard and Beuys was playing a since it has been made afterwards): "Light a prepared piano. It was a piece charged with match and watch it till it goes out". George magic, but apparently it could not be performed Brecht's "Drip Music" has 1959 as its year of by anyone else than Beuys. Therefore it could origin. In his "Water Yam" George Brecht de­ never enter a collective repertoire. On the other veloped a lapidary, poetically effective form that hand such contributions as Brecht's Drip Music, makes it clear that many Fluxus scores are not Maciunas's In Memoriam to Adriano Olivetti, merely instructions but also literary texts in 's Zyklus and 's Pa­ their own right. Some of them were apparently per Piece have been performed hundreds of never intended to be performed, for example times, often without the composer being pre­ Dick H iggins's "Danger Music No. 9 for Nam sent. June Paik": "Volunteer to have your spine re­ This theory does not explain, however, why moved" (to which Paik responded with "Danger so many pieces could resemble each other from Music No. 1 for Dick Higgins": "Creep into the the very beginning. The Fluxus Performance vagina of a living whale"). Workbook is full of pieces where papers are read Can folklore theory explain why Fluxus piec­ loud, objects or bodies are wrapped, holes are es make a non-individual impression? A classical cut in clothes and pianos and other instruments article that might give some leads is "Die Folk­ are used in an unconventional way. We know lore als ein besonderer Form des Schaffens" ( = that many of the artists who composed very Folklore as a Special Form of Creation) by the similar pieces did not know of the existence of Russian scholars Pjotr Bogatyrev and Roman each other's pieces. H ow come that they were so Jakobson, published in 1929. They try to answer similar? Here folkloristic genre theory offers an the question why folklore lacks that individual answer. Examples of folklore genres are: fairy­ character that is found in literature. The reason tale, joke, riddle, singing game. We all recognize is that the oral transmission process functions as them when we meet them. This is because they a filter, letting through only elements which are conform with a set of rules or conventions, gov­ collectively accepted. All folktales and folksongs erning their form, contents and performance. have their origin in the works of individual sto­ The folklorists describe genre as a cognitive ma­ rytellers and poets, but these works are not yet trix or grammar, shared by the performer and folklore. They become folklore when other peo­ the audience. Creations which do no conform - ple choose to remember them and perform at least to some degree - with the matrix will fall them. The transmission process is no mechanical outside the genres and never become part of an act of repetition. On the contrary, some epi- oral tradition (Ben-Amos 1976 ). Fluxus Games and Contemporary Folklore 121 r forgot­

;e details • II) ) 1 ~• l~ · nc.~t. . 1 J-=LUX 'Y. '\ .titute an ._:.• ,j.J t ·-Arr11i·1., r<;, J1l · 1 J '. !'1~11· • I POST \ j:,./

~y were so r offers an are: fairy­ . . recognize (:•e M · ' p, ; .· i·:t....\ ~ ,.:y· (\,·;·ru. ::ause they :ions, gov­ lte. i\. J /)t,\ \f/d.rfi A ' .A) ·formance. ;muve ma­ \ : ....i ih' ,'\ J , _ _ t\ :>rmer and IJ.~ 5 .( conform­ t ph I. [\ .. rix will fall -1-1 \.; 1 1~ . 1 ~ Ii 11 v·" part of an

Ben Vautier : The Postman 's Choice. Pos tcard 1973 (1965), fron t and back. 122 Bengt af Klintberg

It happens that new genres (or sub-genres) are pieces - not necessarily less valuable but less born, and this has given folklorists the opportu­ functional - did not pass the filter. nity to study the emergence of their generic Which were the rules? The earliest pieces an­ grammar. One example is a joke fad which tedating the Pluxus concerts were not bound to spread among adolescents in the USA around a musical context, but from 1962 a concert hall 1962-63, the elephant jokes. In less than one with a stage and a piano became the most fre­ year hundreds of jokes were created which be­ quent setting. The conventional musical expec­ came internationally spread. Here are some ex­ tations created by this framework were an im­ amples: portant prerequisite of the effect of the pieces. These have been characterized as musical theat­ How do you put four elephants in a Volkswagen? - re, but the word theatre gives wrong connota­ I Two in fronc and two in back. tions since the Fluxus pieces are not enacted How can you tell if an elephant has been in the theatrically but rather demonstrated. The thrill refrigerator? - There are footprints in the butter. for the audience lies in identifying the statement Why do elephants paint their toenails red? - To about music or art or other message that is giv­ hide in cherry trees. en. The titles often attack musical conventions: Dick Higgins's Danger Music series bas very A closer analysis shows that all jokes which little to do with music as it is conventionally became widespread follow a matrix where the defined. 's Counting Songs are form, rype of humour, general setting and spe­ not sung. George Brecht's String Quartet and cific situations were programmed. The form is 's Disappearing Music for Face arc that of a riddle-joke: the joketeller asks a ques­ purely visual. The titles not seldom make use of tion, makes a short pause and then answers it gags and wordplay. La Monte Young's Piano himself. The type of humour is absurd, fantastic, Movement is literally a movement of a piano: related to the so-called shaggy dog srories from the interpreter uses his physical strength to the fifties, where the punchline consisted of an move the piano over the stage floor. Mieko unexpected anticlimax. The general setting is Shiomi's Wind Mu.sic is not music for wind in­ sometimes the jungle but more often the mod­ struments but the music produced when scores ern urban world. Specific situations are: ele­ are blown away from stands by wind from a phants are put or found in spaces where there strong fan. In several pieces the Fluxus artists normally isn't enough room for them, they concentrate on some detail in the rituals sur­ climb trees, they dress or paint themselves in rounding conventional performances of concert certain colours, they use the commodities of music, such as the bow of the conductor (Maci­ modern Western world. \Y/e may presume that unas, Solo for Conductor) or the handshake be­ innumerable jokes were created which did not tween conductor and first violin (Brecht, String follow these rules, but they never became part of Quartet). oral tradition, they never passed the collective Formal elements were to a great degree bor­ filter. rowed from traditional game morphology. Sing­ At this point I would like to put forward two ing games and other games often make use of theses regarding the verbal scores for perform­ fundamental geometrical forms such as the circle ance pieces created by Fluxus artists: 1. These or a straight line, and these elements are found pieces are based upon a set of rules, created or in many Fluxus compositions (La Monte accepted by the Fluxus artists. 2. The knowledge Young's "Draw a straight line and follow it", of the pieces was transmitted orally and under­ Tomas Schinit's Zyklus). Chance has an impor­ went changes during that process, just like folk­ tant part in many games: the counting out ritual lore. In that transmission process there were is a chance operation, as is the widespread game also filter mechanisms working so that some "rock-scissors-paper", to take just two exam- Fluxus Games and Contemporary Folklore 123 less

; an- 1d to hall frc­ :pec- I lffi- teces. heat- nota­ actcd thrill :mcnt s g1v­ t1ons: very ::mally ~gs arc ~ t and ice arc use of Piano piano: Emmett Williams performing one of his Counting Songs at Excellent 1992 in Copenhagen 1992. Photo: Bengt af gth to Klint berg. Mieko ind in- plcs. Many Fluxus pieces answer to all thinkable they permitted themselves and others to discov­ scorcs criteria of a game. Emmett Williams's Song of er the magic and beauty of everyday life by from a Uncertain Length is one example: "The per­ defining everyday actions as art, music, dance. . artists former, with a bottle or glass balanced on his The early pieces by Yoko Ono and George ils sur­ head, walks or runs about the stage singing or Brecht which I have already mentioned have had conccrt ~!' eaking until the glass or bottle falls off." (Wil­ many followers. Many of Alison Knowles's per­ · (Maci- .iams 1991 , 47). Many of Milan Knizak's pieces formance scores belong to this category: Nivea 1ake be­ .ise the word "game" in their title. For example Creme Piece, Make a Salad, Braid. Ay-0 has '• String Smile Game: "Say hello to every pretty girl you performed the act of teeth-brushing, a daiJy rit­ :-:ieec. If she replies with a smile, you get a point. ual which most people have ceased to experience ree bor­ T'le one with most points wins." (Friedman with all their senses, so that its inherent magic ;y. Sing­ ~ 990, 30). A classical game structure is used in becomes visible again. e use of 3 en Vautier's Push: "10 to 20 performers push It has been said many times that these pieces he circle ! l.:h other from the stage nonviolently until on­ are applications of Marcel Duchamp's idea of re found .·· 2 performers are left." The only thing that is the ready-made. It has also been correctly em­ Monte -~ t ty pical of a game here is "nonviolently". It is phasized that it is this type of pieces which make Jlow it", ::.'.s instruction, however, that makes the piece a Fluxus appear research-oriented. Dick Higgins's n impor­ - ·?ical Fluxus piece. The performers at the same Gangsang is not only a suggestive, minimalistic JUt ritual · -::e play and demonstrate a play. piece of intermedia, it also presents an accurate ead game :-fowever, the most important rule of all that analysis of the very common and simple act of ro exam- - : Fluxus artists accepted and created was that walking. This extreme attention and sensibility 124 Bengt af Klintberg towards the poetry of everyday life and the hid­ count everybody. If it is big, he will reach a den structures in our most common actions may point when his mouth is so filled with candies be seen as a basic research on an artistic level. that he cannot go on counting." Let us look at George Brecht's Three Telephone I have myself performed the piece several Events (Friedman 1990b, 14): times exactly the way I describe it in this quota­ tion. It was not until 1992 that I realized that When the telephone rings, it is allowed to continue Counting Song exists in no less than ten ver­ ringing until it stops. sions. They were born during the Copenhagen When the telephone rings, the receiver is lifted, Fluxus festival in 1962 because the artists needed then replaced. an exact head count to make certain the manage­ When the telephone rings, it is answered. ment wasn't cheating them on their share of the entrance tickets (Williams 1991, 51). The version It is clear that this piece has been preceded by an I witnessed and passed on was Counting Song analysis of the alternatives open for a person No. 3. who hears the telephone ringing, and the analy­ Another example is Bibbe's Tao by Al Han­ sis presented has a beauty that some may call sen. I learnt it in 1963 by Dick Higgins and mathematical, others dramatical. When one Alison Knowles, who described the piece in this hears that George Brecht nowadays very seldom way: each of the performers is given a paper practises alternative No. 3, one also starts to napkin, preferably red. They use it as they wish: wonder if the everyday actions chosen by the tear it in pieces, fold it etc. I have since then had different Fluxus artists arc casual. I have chosen it included in several Fluxus concerts and I have to emphasize the non-individual character of always been very careful to get red paper nap­ Fluxus art. Another analysis, in which a bio­ kins. Recently, in November 1992, Dick Hig­ graphical approach is used, would perhaps dem­ gins told me that the piece was originally per­ onstrate that the pieces are keys to subconscious formed with props from The Living Theater. strata in the artists' personalities! These few examples may be enough to dem­ The oral transmission of the Fluxus repertoire onstrate that the repertoire of Fluxus perform·· is something I have experienced myself. I learnt ance pieces was never fixed but changed as it was the pieces I performed in Stockholm and Oslo passed on by word of mouth. I am sure that very much the same way as I learnt new games other Fluxus artists can add many more exam­ as a child: I saw others perform them, and I was ples. instructed by those who already knew them, What I have wanted to demonstrate in this such as Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles. To­ presentation is that there are many similarities day there exists, as a result of this transmission between the repertoire of Fluxus performance process, considerable variation in the perform­ pieces and folklore. The most striking similarity ance praxis of classical Fluxus pieces. One exam­ is their social significance. Both take place in the ple is Emmett Williams's Counting Song, which interaction between people. Some people in the I saw him perform in the Nikolaj church in audience might remain puzzled, others experi­ Copenhagen on November 29, 1962. Emmett ence some kind of insight. I think this playful, Williams counted the audience loud from the explorative attitude towards art and life is what stage, placing a bonbon in his mouth for each makes Fluxus important still today. spectator. I have described the impression that Emmett's performance made on me (Sellem 1991, 66): "The audience can follow how his References voice becomes more and more indistinct, and it Ben-Amos 1976: Dan Ben-Amos, ed., Folklore Genres. Austin: University of Texas Press. can anticipate what will eventually happen: if Bogacyrcv and Jakobson 1929: Pjotr Bogatyrcv and Roman Ja· the audience is small enough, he will be able to kobson, "l)ie Folklore als cine besondere Form d e ~ Schaf- Fluxus Games and Contemporary Folklore 125

- ~ ~. --: -i..iraliciitm Schrijncn, pp. 900-913. Nij- af Klintberg 1990: Bengt af Klintberg, "Muxus in ." In: tch a Achille Bonito Oliva, Gino Di Maggio, Gianni Sassi, eds., Ubi i:.;.; :>:::r Frank, "Art for Life's Sake: The Fluxus Flux.us, ibi Motus, pp. 295-99. Milano: Ma:a;otta Edit0re. ndics Scllem 1991: Jean Sellem, "The Fluxus Outpost in Sweden: An - -"" -~ J:: Contemporary Culture." In: Achille Bonito Interview with Bengt af Klintberg. • Lund Art Press, 2: 2, _ G. ~• .:> Di :'lfaggio, Gianni Sassi, eds., Ubi fluxus, ibi :veral ·. : '.)?. 435-38. Milano: Mazzotta Edit0re. 65-69. 0 Williams 1991: Emmett Williams, My Life in Flux - And Vice uota­ - - :.:.-:..:: i99:ia: Ken Friedman, "Fluxus and Company". In: .".: -.:_'.!Bonito Oliva, Gino Di Maggio, Gianni Sassi, eds., Ubi Versa. Stuttgart & London: Edition Hansjorg Mayer. l that .=_,._~:;s, 1bi MotzH , pp. 328-32. Milano: Mazzotta Editore. 1 ver­ :o:.-~ :r.an 1990b: Ken Friedman, ed., The Fluxus Performance :iagcn Torltbook. Trondheim: El Djarida. Bengt af Klintberg :-iendricks 1981: Jon Hendricks, ed., Flux.us, etc.: The Gilbert Vendevagen 13 eeded .md Lila Silverman Collection. Southfield Hills, Michigan: S-181 31 Lidingo .nagc­ Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum. Sweden of the Higgins 1991: Dick Higgins, "fluxus: Theory and Reception." ers1on In: Lund Art Press, ·2: 2, 24-50. Song

Han­ tS and in this paper · wish: en had I have :r nap­ ( Hig­ ly per­ ·ater. ) dem­ rform·· sit was re that · exam-

in this ilarities rmance nilarity :e in the e in the expen­ playful, is what

·es. Austin:

Roman Ja­ des Schaf-