Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik, IN MEMORIAM GEORGE MACIUNAS: KLAVIERDUETT, Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, 1978

Organised: Fluxus Soirée by Galerie René Block

Opening: July 7, 1978, 8 p.m., at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

Dimensions: 14.8 x 10.4 cm

Further Information: Organized as a Fluxus soirée by Galerie René Block, Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik played a double piano requiem concert dedicated to Fluxus founder George Maciunas, who had died on May 8, 1978. As an introduction, René Block reminded the audience that Maciunas had only been 47 years old; reversing this, Beuys and Paik would play 74 scores in total, each fifteen-minutes long. These scores included unusual sounds and actions, such as the sounds of a tape recorder, playing the piano with elbows, loud breathing, switching off lights and lighting candles, the loud ticking of a clock, and kneeling in front of the piano.

Playing at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, where Paik had just been appointed guest professor, and from where, six years prior, Beuys had been fired from his professorship, both artists were familiar and somewhat conflicted with the venue. Around 500 people came to see the concert in the academy’s auditory hall, most of whom, as a newspaper review by Amine Hasse for the Rheinische Post describes, listened respectfully to the music. The money generated from the concert’s entry fee and the from the sale of the recording was used to finance the rescue of Maciunas’ estate, which included countless documents, recordings, and objects from the Fluxus movement. See a video of the event, the newspaper review, and a picture from the event in the box on the right.

ALW

Further links: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/werke/in-memoriam-maciunas/

Images: Images of the invitation and all other archival documents shown on this page are part of the online collection of Archiv der Avantgarden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

 

 

George MaciunasJoseph BeuysNam June Paik



Review of In Memorian George Maciunas, Klavierduett Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik (Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, 1978) by Amine Haase for Rheinische Post, July 10, 1978

<em>Rheinische Post</em>, Press, 10 July 1978, Amine Haase on <em>In Memorian George Maciunas: Klavierduett Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik</em>, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 1978 © SKD © VG BILD KUNST, BONN” class=”wp-image-686″><figcaption>Rheinische Post, Press, 10.7.1978, Amine Haase on <em>In Memorian George Maciunas, Klavierduett Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik</em>, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 1978 © SKD © VG BILD KUNST, BONN</figcaption></figure>



<figure class=RHEINISCHE POST, Press, 10.7.1978, Amine Haase on "In Memorian George Maciunas, Klavierduett Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik", Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 1978 © SKD © VG BILD KUNST, BONN
Rheinische Post (Press) 10 July 1978, Amine Haase on In Memorian George Maciunas, Klavierduett Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 1978 © SKD © VG BILD KUNST, BONN

George Maciunas was often referred to as “Mr. Fluxus”, as he outlined the basic manifesto for the Fluxus movement in 1963:

George Macunias, Fluxus Manifest, 1963, Archiv der Avntgarden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
George Maciunas, Fluxus Manifesto, 1963, Archiv der Avantgarden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden