The World According to Fluxus exhibition will showcase more than 600 items selected by curator Liutauras Pšibilskis and is the first comprehensive presentation of the Vilnius Fluxus Collection to a Lithuanian audience. It will allow viewers to become acquainted with these treasures of the Fluxus movement that were acquired by the City of Vilnius in 2007 and are part of the permanent collection of the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center. The collection was assembled by legendary avant-garde filmmaker, artist, critic and curator Jonas Mekas who was a close friend of George Maciunas (Jurgis Mačiūnas). Mekas is the founder and long-time artistic director of Anthology Film Archives in New York and the recipient of numerous international awards including the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and the Arts.
The Vilnius Fluxus Collection is noteworthy in many of its aspects. The extensive holdings include approximately 2,600 objects with a large part having direct provenance from George Maciunas. The collection contains many originals and sketches of famous Fluxus works by Maciunas himself and other well known artists.
“What makes the Fluxus artists relevant to us in Lithuania are not just the insights and ideas communicated through the works, but also the fact that the movement’s founder, George Maciunas, was our fellow countryman and his creative and organizational activities reflect his experience – shared by many – of the Second World War and of having to leave Lithuania”, explains curator Liutauras Pšibilskis.
Maciunas’ diverse fields of work – curating, organizing, various forms of collaboration – all came together as a unified art project and formulated a “language of art” that became a progressive and intellectually stimulating component of post-war Western culture. The uncompromising but also popular and accessible ideas of the Fluxus movement still inspire artists and audiences today. Paradoxically, although it was radical and always in opposition to established norms, Fluxus has now become an important part of many collections of twentieth century art.
