Fluxus Show celebrates dichotomy
Fluxus | Black&White is an exhibition that goes back to a recent moment in the history of the visual arts, specifically the 1960s and 1970s, when the artists were creating images with alternative cameras, such as the Super-8, the 16mm and the Portapak, which became part of their language experimentations. Inspired by the context of the vanguard movements of that time, they reclaim the concept according to which the image is in itself a medium for the expression of their art and, consequently, begin to associate it with everything that is around them. The possibilities that come from such experiments are extended even further due to the instantaneous nature of the video camera, which the artists start to use in real-time performances and happenings.
The expensive film images, which were usually restricted to the cinematic narrative models, are metaphorically demolished through a process of reconstruction of new and infinite senses. Such impure territory is a fertile ground for the birth of the video art and the glorification of the film outside its conventional space. The film/video equation is, then, embedded in the cosmic arts universe and set off to occupy museums and galleries. The avant-garde thinking was correct: there could be no linguistic, technical or spatial restrictions on the arts.
Fluxus | Black&White, celebrates the 50 years of the creation of Fluxus movement and presents 36 films in black & white from the Fluxfilm Anthology, which were made from 1962 to 1970 and compiled by the founder of Fluxus, George Maciunas (1931-1978). The Anthology is composed of several artists who celebrate the ephemeral mood of this influent movement, such as Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Yoko Ono, Ben Vautier and Paul Sharits.
The exhibition is also suggesting a provocative dichotomy between black & white images, as well as between male & female positions. On one side, there are women artists using their disruptive force to expose their rhetoric, and, on the other, there are men artists reaffirming their domains in the broad and eclectic space of the arts. Dennis Oppenheim, Ivens Machado, Joan Jonas, Letícia Parente, Mako Idemitsu, Martha Rosler, Nam June Paik & Jud YaLKUt, Woody Vasulka and Fluxfilm Anthology take part at the show that opens today.
Learn more at the Fluxus Festival website.