FLUXFILM ANTHOLOGY
"Fluxus is a community of individuals scattered throughout many countries, grouping together a vast quantity of behaviors and attitudes. All are singular in their personalities and their work, but their position regarding the Art world is appreciably the same: as stated by Fluxus artist George Brecht, to fight against 'the immense stupidity, sadness and lack of meaning that is our wound in life.' Starting in the early 1960's, Fluxus followed in the footsteps of Futurism and Dada, leaving behind and going against the established grain of Fine Art and Official Art. Most of the Fluxus actors demanded freedom and instantaneity in creating, and referred to ideas that had no direct link to Western art. Fluxus' origins are multiple and not clearly defined, because it is a non-group with no strict structure, as it was for the surrealists with their lists of membership and exclusion [...]
The direct, physical relationship with the audience became for Fluxus the end result of a search for something between 'art and life;' the Happening, initiated by Allan Kaprow, became the most representative expression of this idea. As celebrations of the present moment among friends, improvised on little or no budgets and in various places (streets, galleries, apartments, construction sites, theatres, etc.), site-specific and time-oriented, the Happenings could by definition never be reproduced. In a strong relationship to the present moment, the art appears ephemeral and free. It becomes an assertion of life [...]
Producer, organizer, graphic designer and Fluxus theorist, George Macuinas was the movement's key figure. Trained as an architect and art historian, he created Fluxus, and thus appeared on the international art scene in the early 1960's. 'Fluxus', from the Latin for the flow of life, was for him a movement which had to be radical from the beginning. As it was mistaken for a group with a status and an agenda, misunderstandings quickly appeared. Its members, however, were never concerned with doctrines, or with method. These individual artists, had simply chosen to unite, as they thought the limits of art were looser than convention led to believe, and that certain long-established boundaries were no longer useful. Fluxus had, therefore, neither unity nor heirarchy. According to Macuinas, each artist needed to establish his own non-professional, non-parasitic, and non-elitist status in society. To accomplish this, he wanted to show that the audience could entertain itself alone and that any person could be a substitute for art. Macuinas was not only a 'theorist' but also a visionary. In 1967, he went so far as to create an imaginary Fluxus island with Yoko Ono and John Lennon! He was also the man behind the artists cooperatives, establishing the loft world of New York's Soho district. There is no rigid definition of Fluxus. The eclecticism of its productions strecthed from the famous Fluxboxes, true anthologies made and labeled by Macuinas, to the films presented in the enclosed DVD. Nam June Paik lay the groundwork for video art, asserting: 'to be Fluxus is to venture into virgin land' [...]
Text excerpted from the essay by Maeva Aubert, contained in the 32-page bilingual booklet published along with the DVD.
This series of 37 films which George Maciunas began gathering as early as 1966 was compiled by Jonas Mekas at New York's Anthology Film Archives in 1992. Though some films are still missing, it is the most complete version to date since Maciunas' death in 1978.
Contents
Format: DVD-PAL / Region 0
(No Regional Code); DSL/Downloadable Standard Definition and HD file/s on server
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ZEN FOR FILM
(1962-1964)
Director: Nam June Paik
• 8 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
INVOCATION OF CANYONS AND BOULDERS (FOR STAN BRAKHAGE)
(1966)
Director: Dick Higgins
• 23 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
END AFTER 9
(1966)
Director: George Maciunas
• 1 minute
• B&W
• Silent
◊
DISAPPEARING MUSIC FOR FACE
(1966)
Director: Chieko Shiomi
• 11:15 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
BLINK
(1966)
Director: John Cavanaugh
• 2:20 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
9 MINUTES
(1966)
Director: James Riddle
• 10 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
10 FEET
(1966)
Director: George Maciunas
• 23 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
1000 FRAMES
(1966)
Director: George Maciunas
• 43 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
EYE BLINK
(1966)
Director: Yoko Ono
• 35 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
ENTRANCE TO EXIT
(1965)
Director: George Brecht
• 7 minutes
• B&W
• Sound
◊
TRACE #22
(1965)
Director: Robert Watts
• 3 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
TRACE #23
(1965)
Director: Robert Watts
• 3 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
TRACE #24
(1965)
Director: Robert Watts
• 1:20 minute
• B&W
• Silent
◊
ONE
(1966)
Director: Yoko Ono
• 5 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
EYE BLINK
(1966)
Director: Yoko Ono
• 15 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
FOUR
(1967)
Director: Yoko Ono
• 6:15 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING
(1966)
Director: Pieter Vanderbeck
• 5:20 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
SMOKING
(1966)
Director: Joe Jones
• 5:10 minutes
• B&W
• Sound
◊
OPUS 74, VERSION 2
(1966)
Director: Erik Andersen
• 1:35 minutes
• B&W
• Sound
◊
ARTYPE
(1966)
Director: George Maciunas
• 2:40 minutes
• B&W
• Sound
◊
SHOUT
(1966)
Director: Jeff Perkins
• 2:10 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
SUN IN YOUR HEAD (TELEVISION DECOLLAGE)
(1963)
Director: Wolf Vostell
• 7:10 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
READYMADE
(1966)
Director: Albert Fine
• 2:20 minutes
• B&W, Color
• Silent
◊
THE EVIL FAERIE
(1966)
Director: George Landow
• 19 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
SEARS CATALOGUE 1-3
(1965)
Director: Paul Sharits
• 28 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
DOTS 1 & 2
(1965)
Director: Paul Sharits
• 35 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
WRIST TRICK
(1965)
Director: Paul Sharits
• 28 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
UNROLLING EVENT
(1965)
Director: Paul Sharits
• 5 seconds
• B&W
• Silent
◊
WORD MOVIE
(1966)
Director: Paul Sharits
• 3:50 minutes
• B&W, Color
• Silent
◊
DANCE
(1966)
Director: Albert Fine
• 2:40 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
POLICE CAR
(1966)
Director: John Cale
• 1:25 minutes
• Color
• Silent
◊
FLUX FILM #36
(1970)
Director: Peter Kennedy & Mike Parr
• 2:35 minutes
• B&W
• Sound
◊
FLUX FILM #37
(1970)
Director: Peter Kennedy & Mike Parr
• 1:30 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
JE NE VOIS RIEN, JE N’ENTENDS RIEN, JE NE DIS RIEN
(1966)
Director: Ben (Benjamin Vautier, aka)
• 7:33 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
LA TRAVERSEE DU PORT DE NICE A LA NAGE
(1963)
Director: Ben (Benjamin Vautier, aka)
• 3:15 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
FAIRE UN EFFORT
(1969)
Director: Ben (Benjamin Vautier, aka)
• 2:20 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
◊
REGARDEZ-MOI, CELA SUFFIT
(1962)
Director: Ben (Benjamin Vautier, aka)
• 6:50 minutes
• B&W
• Silent
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Total Running Time: 01:57:36
Booklet Text: Maeva Aubert (Bilingual French & English)
Published By: Re:Voir Video
Institutional Price: $250 (plus shipping).
To order call: 212.280.8654 or click here for information on ordering by fax, e-mail or post.