This press release, which announces a concert of “classic ’60’s performances” of Fluxus scores organized by Ken Friedman and Larry Miller, is of interest as an early example of the historicization of Fluxus activities. Held at The Kitchen in New York on 24 March 1979, the concert came less than a year after Fluxus founder George Maciunas’s untimely death (due to pancreatic cancer) and in spite of the fact that most of its major participants were still alive and making new work. “Historical Fluxus pieces” were carefully “reconstructed” for the evening, and the text describes well their dynamic range: “The rapid succession of quick pieces makes for a lively presentation, with constant shifts of focus and scale. Some of the pieces are explosive, with a punchline, while others draw our attention to intimate small-scale events.” Also of note is the capsule definition of Fluxus given in the first paragraph of the second page, which remarks on the group’s interest in “social transformation” and claims for Fluxus an instrumental role in “the formation of performance art as we know it.”
© Ken Friedman.
