In this post, you will discover a comprehensive compilation of present, and upcoming exhibitions highlighting Fluxus and Fluxus artists held in 2024. We will diligently update this list throughout the year to ensure its accuracy. Should you happen to come across an exhibition that we have omitted, kindly reach out to us via email at activatingfluxus@gmail.com or send a direct message to our X (Twitter) account, @activatingflux.
PRESENT AND UPCOMING
Germany
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
September 28, 2024 – March 16, 2025
Spanning seven decades of the artist’s powerful, multidisciplinary practice from the mid-1950s to now, YOKO ONO. MUSIC OF THE MIND traces the development of Ono’s innovative work and its enduring impact on contemporary culture. The exhibition in K20 brings together over 200 works including instruction pieces and scores, installations, films, music and photography, revealing a radical approach to language, art and participation that continues to speak to the present moment. Ono’s practice occupies a pioneering position within Conceptual Art and Fluxus and thus deeply resonates in Düsseldorf – a city with a rich history in both these international art movements.
Dortmunder U / Museum Ostwall
October 25, 2024 – March 23, 2025
The exhibition addresses the often overlooked female positions in art history. Divided into two parts, it is inspired by the collection of the Museum Ostwall and at the same time takes a critical look at it. The “Expressionism Part” of the exhibition presents the artistic work of Else Berg, Renée Sintenis, Lotte Reiniger, Emma Schlangenhausen, Kitty Rix, Marta Worringer and Madame d’Ora, who worked in different genres, and also look at their reception history. The “Fluxus Part” focuses on the female positions of this global art movement. Well-known artists such as Charlotte Moorman, Alison Knowles, Takako Saito and performances by Carolee Schneeman are part of the exhibition, as are the Latin American artists Leticía Parente and Mónica Mayer. With Mako Idemitsu and Mieko Shiomi, the exhibition shows female artistic positions of the Fluxus movement from Japan, which are largely unknown in Germany.
Museum Ludwig Cologne
Fluxus and Beyond: Ursula Burghardt, Benjamin Patterson
October 12, 2024 – February 9, 2025
The art of the Fluxus movement caught on in the 1960s through Happenings, concerts, performances, and spontaneous actions, greatly influencing subsequent artists. While the Museum Ludwig collection contains pieces by Nam June Paik, Daniel Spoerri, and Mary Bauermeister that are now considered true classics, the works of sculptor Ursula Burghardt (1928-2008) and composer Benjamin Patterson (1934-2016), who were both part of the Fluxus circle, are less known. This major exhibition at the Museum Ludwig takes a meeting between Burghardt and Patterson in Cologne in 1960 as a starting point to further examine their work and the complex artistic networks and collaborations in which both participated. The breaks in their careers, which came about due to artistic and social reasons, are particularly striking. The experience of exclusion, that both experienced due to their biographies—Burghardt was Jewish, Patterson an African-American—is inscribed in their works.
Museum Wiesbaden
September 24, 2024 – January 25, 2025
In 1962, Alison Knowles was the only female participant in the “Fluxus International Festival of New Music” at the Museum Wiesbaden. Energetic, pushing the boundaries of perceived “good taste,” and redefining the experience of attending a museum event, “Fluxus” broke with conventions and expectations to such an extent that some residents of Wiesbaden commented on the events of the time with a simple “The mad ones are on the loose” (Ger: „Die Irren sind los“). The exhibition delves into Alison Knowles’ empathetic and poetic body of work from her early career to the present, engaging with everyday materials and actions, and in dialogue with herself and her fellow performers.
Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
Schaumagazin ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE
October 19, 2023 – October 6, 2024
The Netherlands
The Kröller-Müller Museum
I Am Still Alive. Mail Art in the Kröller-Müller Collection
October 12, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Artists have always been sending letters and messages, but not all mail sent by artists is automatically mail art. The origins of mail art lie in the 1960s, when American artist Ray Johnson sends collages to friends and receives their responses in the mail. Shortly afterwards, Fluxus artists such as George Maciunas, Yoko Ono and Robert Filiou begin using the global postal system to distribute their art. The artists of this international collective aim to avoid the beaten path within the established art world of traditional institutions, such as the art market, museums and galleries. They seek to make art democratic and accessible to all. Mail is an affordable alternative communication channel with an enormous reach.
The Kröller-Müller Museum has a modest collection of mail art, mostly from the late 1960s and early 1970s. This was the heyday of this art form. In addition to mail art by On Kawara, I AM STILL ALIVE also presents work by Gilbert & George, Jan Dibbets, stanley brouwn, Eva Hesse, Alan Sonfist and herman de vries from the collection.
PAST
St. Matthew’s Church / Berlin
Holy Fluxus: From the Collection Francesco Conz
July 13, 2024 – September 8, 2024
After many years of sorting and cataloging its extensive holdings, the Berlin-based Archivio Conz is presenting 200 highlights from its important Fluxus collection to the public for the first time. The exhibition Holy Fluxus. From the Francesco Conz Collection at St. Matthew’s Church in Berlin features selected works by Dorothy Iannone, Allan Kaprow, George Maciunas, Hermann Nitsch, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Carolee Schneemann, and Daniel Spoerri, among others. Opposite Kunstgewerbemuseum foyer, the famous “Avantgarde” Volkswagen by Charlotte Moorman will be on display, with Nam June Paik’s bomb imitation mounted on the roof.
The Bass Museum of Art
Nam June Paik: The Miami Years
October 4, 2023 — August 16, 2024
Nam June Paik (b. 1932, Seoul, Korea; d. 2006, Miami Beach), a pioneer in electronic imagery and digitized compositions, is often referred to as the “father of video art.” Celebrating The Bass’ acquisition of Paik’s TV Cello (2003), Nam June Paik: The Miami Years recounts the artist’s connection to Miami and optimistic aim to humanize technology. Living in Miami Beach for nearly two decades, Paik created site-specific projects for Miami International Airport, unveiled in 1990. The exhibition examines the history of these public artworks, with a deeper look at the artist’s philosophy towards technology and its relationship to the body.
TATE MODERN
February 15, 2024 – September 15, 2024
Yoko Ono is a leading figure in conceptual and performance art, experimental film and music. Developing her practice in America, Japan and the UK, she is renowned for her activism, work for world peace, and environmental campaigns. Ideas are central to her art, often expressed in poetic, humorous and radical ways. Spanning more than seven decades, the exhibition focuses on key moments in Ono’s career, including her years in London from 1966 to 1971, where she met John Lennon. The show explores some of Ono’s most talked about artworks and performances, from Cut Piece (1964), where people were invited to cut off her clothing, to her banned Film No.4 (Bottoms) (1966-67) which she created as a ‘petition for peace’. Alongside her early performances, works on paper, objects, and music, audiences will discover a selection of her activist projects such as PEACE is POWER and Wish Tree, where visitors can contribute personal wishes for peace. Through her instructions and event scores, Ono invites visitors to take part in both simple acts of the imagination and active encounters with her works.
University Research Gallery, Harvard Art Museums
Wolf Vostell: Dé-coll/age Is Your Life
January 20 – May 5, 2024
Spanning three decades, Wolf Vostell: Dé-coll/age Is Your Life presents prints, films, sculptures, editioned artworks, and performance ephemera drawn primarily from the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s collection at Harvard, the largest repository of the artist’s work in the Americas. Works by Vostell’s Fluxus collaborators and other peers who employed destructive methods in their work—including Joseph Beuys, Alberto Burri, Hy Hirsh, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, and Gerhard Richter—along with reproductions of photographs of Vostell’s happenings, are also part of the exhibition. Loans have generously been provided by the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster, as well as Harvard University’s Fine Arts Library and Houghton Library.
M+
December 15, 2023 – May 5, 2024
Ay-O: Hong Hong Hong highlights the practice of Japanese artist Ay-O, widely known as the ‘rainbow artist’, who has explored the universal motif of the rainbow in ever-expanding constellations of forms, ideas, and moods, driven by his unflagging humour, curiosity, and imagination. Ay-O developed his distinct visual language in the immediate aftermath of World War II and later in the milieu of the international movement of Fluxus, centred in New York City in the 1960s. These experiences shaped his belief that art should be as widely accessible as possible. From this anti-elitist philosophy emerged his signature rainbow patterns, which he has been applying and adapting to numerous canvases, sculptures, and environments over the last six decades.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Call It Something Else: Something Else Press, Inc. (1963-1974)
September 26, 2023 – January 22, 2024
Japan Society, NY
Out of Bounds: Japanese Women Artists in Fluxus
October 13, 2023 — January 21, 2024
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)
If the Berlin Wind Blows My Flag: Art and Internationalism before the Fall of the Berlin Wall
September 14, 2023 – January 14, 2024
Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau
FLUXUS MUSIK ZONE WEST: From Beuys to Moorman
August 13, 2023 – January, 7 2024
Kulturzentrum Festung Ehrenbreitstein / Landesmuseum Koblenz
Wolfgang Träger „The Fluxus Family. Portraits and Performances“
March 22, 2024 – June 9, 2024
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