Fluxeum

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The Fluxeum is a private museum founded in 1986 for the Fluxus movement in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim .

history

Ute and Michael Berger, who later became known as collectors of art and everyday objects, artist sponsors and gift manufacturers, founded the Harlekin company in 1969. The comic and ironic trade of the Bergers found many buyers in the time of pop and protest, but also got into legal difficulties over the years because of cheeky gag gifts.

First, the couple collected curious everyday objects. such as B. Coca-Cola, Mickey Mouse and Teddy Bears. Due to the great success of the company, the collection of Bergers could continue to grow. It started in a ping pong room and grew into over five garages.

In 1973 the encounter with Robert Filious Objekt Combining in Basel led to art. The Fluxus pioneer incorporated the harlequin hand into it in 1970. The Bergers bought it and thus laid the foundation for the well-known Fluxus collection, which includes works by Marcel Broodthaers , Mary Bauermeister and Daniel Spoerri . Since these years there has been intensive contact with the protagonists of the Fluxus movement, who were soon to frequent Erbenheim, e. B. Benjamin Patterson , Joe Jones, Nam June Paik .

Some of the artists lived with the Bergers and gave them works of art in exchange.

In 1974 the Bergers acquired a secular church. It later becomes the exhibition space and then the Bergers' private Fluxus Museum, the Fluxeum. Under the name Harlekin Art, they have been publishing editions by artist friends since 1977. In 1978, Harlekin Art produced a multiple by Wolf Vostell entitled Endogene Depression in an edition of 50 copies. In 1982 they remembered with a great celebration that the 1962 “International Festival of New Music” in the Museum Wiesbaden marked the birth of Fluxus. They established the tradition that the city celebrates this event every ten years. The Fluxus flow lives on today through this memory every decade. Wiesbaden is very proud that a world-class event in the arts has taken place here. At this first festival in 1982 Berger met Benjamin Patterson for the first time.

In 1986 the Fluxeum was finally opened in the old church, which at the time was the very first museum for Fluxus art. Today the church is the depot of the top-class collection.

The Danish-German-American festival "Excellent '92" for the 30th anniversary of Fluxus began in Michael and Ute Berger's Fluxeum in Wiesbaden and traveled to the Nikolai Church in Copenhagen. At the same time, events were held in New York.

From 1988 on, Benjamin Patterson lived in the former rectory for almost 15 years, directly under Joe Jones. In addition to the Harlequin Hall founded by the couple and the church of humor, Patterson created the “Laughing Mark” monument in 1999, on which the 54 lawsuits that Berger carried out with large companies are buried. According to his own statement, he won 53 of these cases - and was therefore able to tell the companies to have a laugh.

The “Lachbrunnen” by Patterson from 2000 has also remained: a poetic and fairytale-like work that is typical for Berger, in which (as is often the case) frogs play a role.

The Harlekin company ceased operations in 2002. The collection continued. The Bergers own probably the largest collection of Joe Jones' "Music Machines", and Michael Berger, for example, bought mail art from Ray Johnson . Years later, however, the Joseph Beuys collection was sold to the How Art Museum in Shanghai.

No adequate solution has been found for the Berger Collection to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fluxus in 2012. In the past, the collection was left out because it was too historical. The works of almost all Fluxus artists would have fit into the historical context in which Fluxus is viewed in the present. Only a few “Music Machines” owned by Joe Jones' collector couple were on view for two weeks in the Bellevue Hall in Wiesbaden. At the same time, Michael Berger didn't want to get into the Fluxus retrospect at a larger scale without a curator. Former Documenta boss Jan Hoet is said to have applied unsuccessfully for this job when he visited Wiesbaden in 2010.

Ute and Michael Berger have repeatedly supported the Wiesbaden activities around Fluxus as patrons. In 2002 they founded the association “Friends of Fluxus Art” and to this day they maintain close contacts with many Fluxus artists.

Fluxus should also be fun, as Michael Berger emphasizes again and again. And Fluxus must somehow remain incomprehensible even for experts. So they consequently opened more museums: The Harlequinäum , a “laughter museum” opened by the couple in Erbenheim , celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015. In 2011 they opened the Klooseum - Museum of Modern Ass in the old rectory .

Ute Berger's grandmother was married to the art patron and collector Heinrich Kirchhoff . Michael Berger is a grandson of the painter Otto Heichert .

Exhibitions

  • 1986: Maypoles
  • 1987: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree
  • 1988: Once wise always a fool ( Robert Filliou )
  • 1989: Noah's Ark from A to Zett
  • 1990: Humor is the umbrella of the wise
  • 1991: The moment that stands still (Homage á Bob Watts )
  • 1992: Fluxus Da Capo
  • 1996: Ann Noel and Emmett Williams : Mr. Fluxus: A Collective Portrait of George Maciunas , 1931–1978
  • 1998: Joseph Beuys - supernatural laughter
  • 2017/18: Beijing, CAFA Art Museum
  • 2018/19: Tianjin, Academy of fine Arts
  • 2019/20: Shanghai, How Art Museum

literature

  • Hannah Higgins: Fluxus Experience. Ahmanson-Murphy fine arts imprint, University of California Press, 2002, ISBN 0-520-22867-7 .
  • Ken Friedman (Ed.): The Fluxus Reader. Wiley, 1998, ISBN 0-471-97858-2 .
  • Helmut Bien: Harlequinäum. Pop-Life to High-Touch under the sign of the Neo-Barococo. Harlequin presents churned out 1969–1990. The Cheeky Harlequin Encyclopedia. Laugh & in-kind! Dictionary. Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-88300-029-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Katinka Fischer: From Harlequin to Fluxus Expert (PDF document) . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , August 25, 2013, Rhein-Main
  2. ↑ MODERN LIFE: From pop life to high touch . In: Der Spiegel . tape July 30 , 1990 ( spiegel.de [accessed January 24, 2018]).
  3. ↑ a b Katinka Fischer, Wiesbaden: “International Festival of New Music”: History does not repeat itself . In: FAZ.NET . September 1, 2012, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed January 24, 2018]).
  4. ↑ a b Birgitta Lamparth: As if he were out briefly . Wiesbaden Courier from June 24, 2017
  5. ↑ a b c The art of the trivial - Wiesbaden celebrates 50 years of Fluxus - sensor magazine - Wiesbaden - Feel your city . In: sensor Magazin - Wiesbaden - Feel your city . May 5, 2012 ( sensor-wiesbaden.de [accessed January 24, 2018]).
  6. ^ Hannah Higgins: Fluxus Experience. Ahmanson-Murphy fine arts imprint, University of California Press, 2002, ISBN 9780520228672
  7. ↑ Birgitta Lamparth: Michael Berger's Erbenheimer Harlequinäum celebrates its 25th anniversary . In: Wiesbadener Kurier from April 3, 2015
  8. ↑ 'Klooseum' in Wiesbaden - the shrine for the quiet place . In: www.t-online.de . ( t-online.de [accessed on January 24, 2018]).
  9. ↑ Helmut Bien: Harlequinäum. Pop-Life to High-Touch under the sign of the Neo-Barococo. Harlequin presents churned out 1969–1990. The Cheeky Harlequin Encyclopedia. Laugh & in-kind! Dictionary. Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 9783883000299
  10. ↑ U. We Claus (ed.): Joseph Beuys - supernatural laughter: from the Ute & Michael Berger collection in the Fluxeum Wiesbaden. Harlequin Art, 1998
  11. ↑ http://www.harlekinaeum.de/index.html