2024 11 09–12 07 FLUXUS WOMEN: WOMEN IN FLUX

Fluxus was known as one of the most democratic art movements, involving creators of diverse races, nationalities, and genders. However, in 20th-century art history, we mostly find the names of male artists. Yet, from the very beginning, women artists actively engaged in the community of artistic rebels organized by George Maciunas—independently and collectively, alone and with partners.

This exhibition showcases objects, photographs, performance documentation, exhibition invitations, books, and films by Yoko Ono, Alison Knowles, Shigeko Kubota, Alice Hutchins, Carla Liss, Kate Millett, Charlotte Moorman, Nye Ffarrabas (formerly Bici Forbes Hendricks), Simone Forti, Billie Hutching (Maciunas), and others.

Fluxus was famous for its democratic approach to art, which was meant to be “accessible to everyone”—thus often inexpensive, easily reproducible, small in scale, and fitting into the Fluxus boxes and drawers designed by George Maciunas. This exhibition is drawn from Jonas Mekas’s Fluxus collection, highlighting the bold experiments by women artists with their bodies, language, space, and music. Some artists, like Mieko Shiomi, gathered other creators, involving Vytautas Landsbergis in the global “Spatial Poems” performance project, while others went against the flow—like Kate Millett, a second-wave feminist pioneer known for her book Sexual Politics, or Charlotte Moorman, whose independent art practice even angered the Fluxus “pope” George Maciunas, leading to her being “expelled” from the movement.

Yet, most importantly, these artists themselves created new forms of art and communication, critically reflecting on the status of women in society at the time.

This is reflected in the exhibited objects and texts, including the wedding album of Billie Hutching and George Maciunas created by Hollis Melton, Yoko Ono’s scripts (Rape) and performances. This exhibition is a polyphonic dialogue of Fluxus women, where the leading figures are the artists themselves.

Curator: Laima Kreivytė

Exhibition opening: November 9 (Saturday) at 5:00 PM.

The exhibition will run until December 7, 2024.

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Exhibition supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture
Partners: National Museum of Lithuania and culture agency “Art Gene”

Visual identity: Ineta Armanavičiūtė