For Immediate Release—March 17, 2003
Media Contact—Bryan Markovitz, 503 890 2993, bryan@liminalgroup.org
Liminal Presents FluXconcert PDX, An Evening of Historic and New Fluxus Events
Portland, Ore.—On March 28 and 29, Liminal will bring together a diverse mix of Portland artists to launch FluXconcert PDX, an evening of events and objects drawn from and inspired by the famed Fluxus art movement of the late 20th century. FluXconcert PDX offers a veritable array of more than 20 official Fluxus events from artists such as Yoko Ono, George Brecht, Nam June Paik, Ken Friedman, Dick Higgins, Ben Vautier, Emmett Williams and Alison Knowles. Portland artists will also produce several new Fluxus works never before seen by the public.
FluXconcert PDX Steering Committee members include Liminal’s John Berendzen, Bryan Markovitz, Dr. Saxe and Leslie Goodwin; Defunkt’s damali ayo and James Moore, and Lightbox Studio’s Jason Eksuzian and Kelley Bryant. FluXconcert PDX presenters will include members of Liminal, Lightbox Studio, Defunkt, Tri-Met employees, street dwellers, Portland Police, The White House and the media.
What is FluXconcert PDX?
FluXconcert PDX will be organized as an eclectic bazaar or shopping mall of Fluxus events, objects and services presented at Liminal Space and surrounding environs throughout the evenings of March 28 and 29, 2003.
“FluXconcert PDX is a powerful response to life in these uncertain times,” says FluXconcert PDX Information Chairman Bryan Markovitz, “If we all lived in Fluxus, things would be a lot more fun, interesting and slightly less destructive.”
Visitors may purchase items at FluXconcert PDX by exchanging U.S. currency for Fluxbux at the door (one USD currently valued at 10,000 FBX). During the evening, guests may come and go as they please and will have the opportunity to witness dozens of Fluxus events and purchase Fluxus products for their private amusement or for resale to Fluxus-loving blue chip galleries and museum collections.
What is Fluxus?
As the self-professed Fluxus Chairman George Maciunas often noted, Fluxus is a way of life. It is not art, but a kind of anti-art—the concrete world presented as nonproductive events and objects. In Fluxus, social aims often take precedence over aesthetic ones. Fluxus upsets the routine of art and life.
While Fluxus finds its namesake in the early 1960s when Maciunas coined the term, the idea of Fluxus transcends specific time frames, groups or people. Yet, it is historically appropriate to note that a particular community of artists did come together to pursue parallel interests and ideas that are indicative of the energy and playful anarchy generally associated with Fluxus from the late 1950s forward. Their inspiration came from a number of antecedents and sources—Dada, Futurism, Surrealism, Duchamp, Klein and Cage immediately come to mind. Yet artists engaged in Fluxus activites often resist calling it a movement. Rather, Fluxus provides a context for understanding a kind of iconoclastic creativity where simple elements, when combined, express complex ideas.
Fluxus is also known for being approachable and fun. Even the most unsophisticated participants in a Fluxconcert will undoubtedly have a good time, provided that the presenters make Fluxus intelligent in its playfulness and not gratuitous. As Maciunas often liked to point out, Fluxus is not a high form of art, but rather, “good, inventive gags.” Other Fluxus artists would not necessarily agree with Maciunas’ description, but there is a Zen-like ambiguity in his words that hits squarely at the Fluxus mystique. Indeed, such open-ended and differing interpretations makes Fluxus unique in contemporary art movements. Fluxus is what you make of it.
Featured Fluxus favorites will include:
Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece and Wall Piece for Orchestra
George Maciunas’ In Memoriam to Andriano Olivetti
Tomas Schmit’s Zyklus
Dick Higgins’ Constellation #4 and Danger Music #15
Ken Friedman’s Empaquetage pour Christo and Homage to Christo
Takehisa Kosugi’s South #2 (to Nam June Paik)
Ben Vautier’s Drink 1, Telephone and Monochrome for Yves Klein
Emmett Williams’ Duet for Performer and Audience
New Fluxus events will include:
damali ayo’s Caller ID
Jason Eksuzian’s Hey John for John
Bryan Markovitz’s Blind Date
Kelley Bryant’s Haircut
Plus assorted Fluxconcert PDX boxes and products!
FluXconcert PDX
Liminal Space, 403 NW Fifth Avenue at Flanders
Friday and Saturday, March 28 & 29
The concert is ongoing. Guests may come and go throughout the night.
Doors open at 8:30 PM and close late.
Tickets: $5 for admission. Costs for individual events and objects in the space may vary.
For reservations or information: 503 890 2993, www.liminalgroup.org
Liminal (1997-) is a Portland-based ensemble of artists producing performance and media works. Liminal has produced eight original performances, and most recently presented Minimal at Liminal, a concert of American Minimal Music. Liminal’s new work, Three Plays Five Lives, will open April 17. For more information, visit Liminal online at www.liminalgroup.org.
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