Fluxus Manifesto

[droqen]

Re: George Maciunas'
"Fluxus Manifesto"
(or "Manifesto" as titled on original piece)

[droqen]

first of all- the manifesto mixes printing methods. handwritten paragraphs and titles alternate with these very interesting rough black rectangles with negative-space stereotype serif characters, as though they came from a dictionary. i thought that they were from a dictionary or source book, as in blackout poetry, but i don't think they are? in any case. the mixture is interesting.

[droqen]

maybe they are, actually.

(serif type)

To affect, or bring to a certain state, by subjecting to, or treating with, a flux . . . To cause a discharge from, as in purging . . . cf. FLUSH . . . A flowing or fluid discharge from the bowels or other part . . . an excessive and morbid discharge; . . . The matter thus discharged.

(handwritten print)

Purge the world of bourgeois sickness,
"intellectual", professional & commercialized
culture, PURGE the world of dead
art, imitation, artificial art,
abstract art, illusionistic art, mathematical art, --
PURGE THE WORLD OF "EUROPANISM"!

dead art.

the first paragraph-pairing of the fluxus manifesto suggests a purging -- not what fluxus is, but what it exists in opposition to. i can relate.

[droqen]

(serif type)

Act of flowing: a continuous moving on or passing by, . . . a continuing succession of changes . . . copious flow; flood; outflow. . . . The setting in of the tide toward the shore.
   Cf. REFLUX. . . . State of being liquid through head; fusion.    Rare.

(handwritten print)

PROMOTE A REVOLUTIONARY FLOOD
AND TIDE IN ART.
Promote living art, anti-art , promote
NON ART REALITY to be
fully grasped by al peoples, not only
critics, dilettantes and professionals.

i  think this is saying the same thing as the first part. that's fine.
i don't think that i exist in this world, the one that fluxus exists in response to. whether that world exists today is not my concern, only that it is not my world...

we have a revolutionary flood and tide in art, already. there are certainly many works out there, a flood of works, intended to be grasped by all peoples. if anything this is the world i am responding negatively to -- the one that fluxus built, or one that adheres to these principles here, anyway.

[droqen]

(serif type)

. . . promote fusion, . . . substance applied to surfaces to be joined . . . just prior to or during the operation, to clean and free them . . . thus promoting their union . . .

(handwritten print)

FUSE the cadres of cultural,
social  &  political  revolutionaries
into  united front &  action.

recasting the 'metallurgic' definition into a h.uman one
art that inspires action, specific action. change the world,
by inspiring 'cultural, social & political revolutionries'

for, acknowledging, a world with 'cadres' of these people
ready but not quite ready
to act.

[droqen]

is this the world we live in today?
does art inspire action?
i suppose the world is always, has always been, always will be, possessed of some such 'cadres' of people who might be inspired to action, but who are not yet acting.
that is, the identification of such people is an act of finding them,
not of wondering whether they exist.

[droqen]

oh. i thought there was another side, but t was just another photograph of the same artifact. that's it! the entire manifesto.

there is one thing that i missed, my first time through.

well- first, i don't know what "EUROPANISM" is.
but that aside.

promote NON ART REALITY to be . . . grasped by all peoples . . . FUSE the cadres of . . . revolutionaries into united front & action.

i like how these go together. initially i read "grasped by all peoples" to refer to art but explicitly the manifesto is speaking not of art, but of reality, realities.