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Fluxus on Film, Part Two

Introduction by Jacob Proctor
Screening on Film
  • Fist Fight

    Directed by Robert Breer.
    US, 1964, 16mm, color, 9 min.
    Print source: Film-Makers' Coop

Robert Breer’s Fist Fight—a rapid-fire, frame-by-frame collage of, in Breer’s words, “everything imaginable”—was projected as part of Originale, from which the current soundtrack derives.

  • Stockhausen's Originale: Doubletakes

    Directed by Peter Moore.
    US, 1964, 16mm, black & white, 32 min.
    Print source: Film-Makers' Coop

The New York production of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s music/theater event Originale divided the Fluxus community.  Directed by Allan Kaprow, Originale’s all-star cast included such Fluxus stalwarts as Nam June Paik, Dick Higgins, and Ay-O. Outside the concert, Maciunas, Henry Flynt, Ben Vautier, and Tony Conrad picketed the event due to Stockhausen’s perceived elitism, racism, and cultural imperialism. Peter Moore filmed the performance but only began editing the footage shortly before his death in 1993; the film was completed posthumously by his wife and longtime collaborator Barbara Moore.

  • Zefiro Torna, or Scenes From the Life of George Maciunas

    Directed by Jonas Mekas.
    US, 1992, 16mm, color, 35 min.

The close relationship between Fluxus and experimental filmmaking
derived in part from the friendship between Maciunas and New American Cinema champion (and fellow Lithuanian émigré) Jonas Mekas.  In Zefiro Torna, Mekas draws on his own collection of footage—shot between 1952 and 1978—to create a moving cinematic elegy to his late friend. Print courtesy of Filmmakers Coop.

  • Documenta 6 Satellite Telecast

    Directed by Joseph Beuys, Douglas Davis, and Nam June Paik.
    US, 1977, digital video, color, 30 min.
    Copy source: Electronic Arts Intermix

At documenta 6 (1977), an international exhibition held every five years in West Germany, Beuys joined Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, and Douglas Davis in a live international satellite telecast – the first of its kind by artists. Paik and Moorman perform a series of collaborative works, while Davis considers the nature of the telecast as a medium. Beuys, who often used his exhibitions as platforms for social and political agitation, discusses his utopian theories of "social sculpture" and his efforts to transform society through artistic activity.

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